Seduction
by tradingforeverx
Summary: Four girls. Four goals. Insert skinny-dipping, stealing boyfriends, persuading guys to do the nasty with you, and seducing Sirius Black and we are in for one hell of a ride.
1. Introduction

Once upon a time, within the walls of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, there were four girls. They were each different and resided in separate houses within Hogwarts; Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. Their friendship was timeless; they had been friends since their toddler years. Despite all their differences, they never fought. They were sisters from different families, they were tighter than all the skinny jeans in the world. And in their seventh year of schooling, their friendship would be tested and stretched to its limits.

It all started with The Tradition (please note the capitalization). Every year, without fail, they met in secret on the first night of the school year, and gave each other one challenge to fulfill in the duration of the school year. At first, they were small things: pass Transfiguration, get kissed by a boy on the cheek, learn how to play Quidditch. As they grew older, the dares got deeper, and this year it was going to be as deep as it had ever been.

—x—

Mandy Thomas tripped her way into one of the many abandoned classroom in Hogwarts. Sitting before her, used to her tardiness, were her three best friends: Jess Morgan, their resident Slytherin, Trish Campbell from the Hufflepuff house, and Eliza Frankson, the Ravenclaw, which left Mandy as their one and only Gryffindor.

"We ready now?" Eliza asked, pulling some parchment out of her satchel.

Mandy took her seat between Trish and Jess in their small circle. "Ready," she announced, grabbing a flavored bean from the bowl full of them on the desk behind them.

"Alright," Eliza said. "As you know, we are gathered here for The Tradition."

"Oh, yuck," Mandy interrupted. "I got vomit." She swallowed with difficulty and then clawed at her throat as if in agony.

"We've all been brainstorming possible dares for each four of us," Eliza continued, ignoring Mandy, "and tonight we will–"

"Can we skip all these formalities?" Jess asked, blowing some of her black hair out of her face and crossing her arms tight over her chest. "We already know why we're here and how it's done."

Eliza huffed. "Fine." She started ripping the parchment in slips as she continued her instructions, "Take three slips of paper and write down the dares you want the others to complete."

The other three girls shuffled to get three slips of parchment and pulled out their quills. Trish, whose quill was pink and had more feathers than necessary, chewed her lip, asking, "What's your least favorite color, Eliza?"

Eliza eyed her. "What for?"

"For your dare, silly."

Jess grumbled under her breath, scribbling loudly onto the parchment. "Shut it, you two," she muttered. "I'm trying to concentrate."

"You need absolute silence to write down what you've known since the end of last year?" Eliza asked shrewdly.

"Yes."

After a few more seconds of mumbled arguments and Trish whistling, the slips were separated by person and Eliza's was put in a hat. "Alright, Trish, it's your turn to pick for me," she said.

Trish grinned. "Ooh, goody!" she said delightedly, fishing her hand through the slips of parchment. "I hope it's mine, I had a really good one..." She pulled one of the slips out and unfolded it carefully. "Aw, drat! It's not mine. So much for the yellow underwear...Okay, Liza, here you go: To finally seal the deal with Robert Adams."

Trish, Jess, and Mandy 'oooh'ed appropriately at Eliza's mortified face. "I will not!" she declared. "There is no way I'm going–going to...have _sex_ with Robert Adams!"

"Aw, why not, E?" Jess mocked. "Scared of a little intimacy?"

"No," Eliza denied vehemently. "But I'm not even dating Robert."

Mandy snorted. "So?"

"So I refuse! Who wrote the dare?" Silence. "Who?" she demanded, still blushing.

Mandy rose her hand slowly, a sheepish grin on her face. Jess laughed loudly and high-fived her while Eliza growled. "Come on, E," she laughed, "Loosen up. You know you want to."

Eliza's blush deepened.

"Aha!" Mandy yelled victoriously. "See? I'm doing you a favor."

"Besides," Trish put in, "You never like your dares. But you still have to do it."

Eliza glared. "Fine," she huffed.. "Who's next?"

"Ooh, me, me!" Trish exclaimed, raising her hand.

Eliza put the slips for Trish into the hat and shook it around. Mandy fished her hand around and came up with one. She cleared her throat. "Alright, Trish, here we go. You have to..." she unfolded the slip tauntingly slow, "Skinny dip in the Lake with at least five guys." She laughed loudly along with the other girls.

"That's horrid! I can't do that!"

"Well, would you rather screw Robert Adams?"

"Come on," Mandy coaxed. "It won't be too bad."

Jess snorted. "Yes, it will." Mandy nudged her and told her to hush.

"Lemme guess," Trish said. "It was yours, Jess?"

Jess grinned. "The one and only, baby."

Trish kicked her in the leg. "That's for being such a whore!"

Jess laughed, rubbing her shin. "My turn!" she announced.

The slips were again put in the hat, and this time Eliza went through them. She picked one and read it to herself before reading it aloud. "Ha! This one was mine!" she cried. "Okay, Jay, you must steal Alice Logan's boyfriend, Paul Goode."

Jess grinned. "Man, you should have come up with something better. I can accomplish that one in one week, tops."

Mandy snorted. "We'll see. They are attached at the hip and hopelessly in love."

"Until I flash him a little skin," Jess added, winking.

Mandy laughed. "Whatever," she dismissed. "I want my dare, now."

Jess was the one to grab her dare. She pulled it out and stared at it for a few silent moments before erupting in laughter. "This one's priceless! Man, E, you're a genius!"

"It's mine?" Eliza asked, instantly perking up and grinning. "How can you tell?"

"Only you would choose this dare."

"What is it?" Mandy demanded.

"You're not going to like it," Jess told her.

"Lay it on me," Mandy instructed.

"Okay," Jess said skeptically. "You have to seduce Sirius Black."

"That's easy," Mandy said, confused.

"That's not all of it," Jess said.

"You have to seduce him," Eliza cut in, "Make him fall in love with you...and then pull it all out from under him."


	2. Stalking, Failing, Yelling, and Vomiting

"What is _with_ you inane obsession with Sirius Black?" Mandy asked, exasperated.

"I don't have an obsession with him," Eliza denied. She shook her head, brushing her hair out of her eyes and spreading her hands flat in her lap.

Jess snorted. "Man, whatever. Not even I'm that obsessed with him."

"He's your second cousin," Trish pointed out.

Jess shrugged. "Legal," she noted.

Mandy pulled a face. "Moving on," she said loudly. "E? You care to explain?"

"There is absolutely nothing to explain," Eliza exclaimed. "What is with you people, honestly? I'm not obsessed with him. If anything, I dislike him severely. His personality is atrocious, his manners are severely lacking, and don't even get me started on his intelligence. What I'm trying to say is that he walks around owning the school and he shouldn't. Might as well get M to do the dirty work."

Mandy took a handful of flavored beans and glared halfheartedly at Eliza. "Gee, thanks, E. I really appreciate it."

"You're making me sleep with Robert! What if I wanted to wait until marriage, then what?"

"But you don't," Jess put in. "That's Trish."

Trish blushed daintily. "I don't see what that has to do with the conversation, Jess."

Jess shrugged. "Absolutely nothing. I just like to bring it up in conversation as much as possible." She flashed a grin. "I never really get the chance."

"Can we get back to me?" Mandy asked. "I'm supposed to somehow find a way to get Sirius Black fall in love with me and you guys are being no help."

"I've got my own problems," Eliza informed her.

"True," Jess conceded. "That one has to sleep with Robert." She snorted. "I'd say that was a bigger problem then having my tasty second cousin into you."

"Stop with the incest," Mandy groaned.

Trish nodded. "Even if it is legal, it's kind of sick."

"We need game plans," Eliza commented. "Oh, I know!" She pulled more parchment out and turned to face the desk behind her, her quill already working its way across the page. "I'll make some guidelines for us to reach our respective goals."

"Oh, and we still need the consequence page in case someone doesn't go through with their dare," Mandy noted. "You on it, Jess?"

"You know it."

"Okay, give us a copy tomorrow at breakfast. I need to get to the Tower before Head Girl Lily Evans started patrolling and gives me a detention. Meaning you guys should head out too."

"Oh, Lily Evans, scary!" Jess mocked.

—x—

The next morning came bleak. It was a dreary, rainy day in Scotland and inside the castle walls of Hogwarts was not much better. At the early hour of seven o'clock in the morning, each girl entered the Great Hall for breakfast. As usual for the first day of school, they sat at the Hufflepuff table and loaded up on food and caffeine.

"Sleep," Mandy groaned. "Need sleep."

"Quiet," Jess snapped, in her regular morning bad mood. "Need quiet."

There was quiet for only a second before Eliza broke it. "Okay, so I drew up separate guidelines for each of us last night. I have copies of each for myself, just in case you lose them or something, and here are copies that you can keep." She handed the girls their copies and ignoring Jess's grumbles.

"'Hang around the lake?'" Trish quoted. "No offense, E, but I don't think that's much help to me."

Eliza grimaced. "Yes, yours was a peculiar case. I wasn't sure what kind of guidelines skinny dippers required, so I tried my best."

"Well, hey," Mandy commented, skimming her page, ignoring Jess as she banged her head on the table, "Mine aren't half bad. Lovin' the title, by the way, E."

_Mandy Thomas's Guidelines on How to Seduce and Conquer Sirius Black_

_1. Bump into him 'accidently' and make sure he gets a clear view down your shirt._

_2. Find out what he's interested in, learn about it, and pretend to be interested in it too._

_3. Start casual conversations whenever possible._

_4. Get an in with his friends._

_5. Getting tired, think for yourself. Why am I even making you guidelines? You're making me sleep with Robert. Oh, I shouldn't have put that in writing! E._

"Original," Trish commented, grinning. "Though there is a problem."

"What's that?"

"These are all great for the seduction part, but not the conquering. Sirius Black isn't taken with many girls. In fact, I don't think he's even been taken with a girl. Maybe he's gay. You know, that would make a lot of sense. The Marauders are rather close..."

"Back to the point," Mandy instructed.

"Right, so, he's kind of evasive with the ladies. You're going to have to be one super girl to catch his attention. Not that you aren't," she amended, "But something is going to have to bond you guys other than your cleavage."

"You're making me nervous."

Trish shrugged. "Sorry. We're all kind of nervous, but that's–"

"Apparently," Jess exclaimed, picking her head up from the table and glaring at the other three girls, "We're all rather chatty too. Could we not? Silence is golden. Shut _up_."

"Yes ma'am," three voices chorused.

—x—

Phase One of Seduction: Sirius Black (SSB for short. Mandy was hoping that wasn't a disease or anything. Especially a sexually transmitted one. Man, that would be ironic, since she was trying to seduce him. Not that she really knew if she was going to have to sleep with him. She hoped not. That would be a bit...okay, off topic) was not going well. Since they were both Gryffindors, they basically had the same schedule for the day, but even still, she hadn't found one opportunity the entire day to talk to him. They sat on opposite sides of the classroom in all of their classes together, and that boy stayed glued to his friends. Maybe Trish was right, maybe he was gay.

Shaking her head at herself, Mandy continued Phase One of SSB. Currently she was kind of...well, she was kind of stalking him. It wasn't nearly as creepy as it sounded, but she was trying to find the perfect opportunity to talk to him, and she had yet to find one, so she was just, you know, following him and the rest of the Marauders from a distance.

On the regular dares that she was given, she didn't start until at least January. But this dare seemed like every second counted. All her other dares had been relatively easy. It seemed that everyone was pretty clever this year, though. Hence the stalking and the staring and the question-asking that had been going on all day.

She watched as the four boys turned a corner up ahead in loud, joyous laughter. The sound faded off and she hurried to follow them around the corner. That thought was cut short when as she turned the corner, she felt something collide with her as her back did seconds later with the wall behind her. A hand was placed over her mouth while another held her in place.

A yelp erupted from her lips, but it was muffled by the hand on her mouth. She looked up at her captor only to see the subject of SSB himself. His friends seemed to be gone.

"Why are you following me?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

She tried to answer but all it came out as was a muffle of words.

"What?" he demanded. "I didn't understand that."

She rolled her eyes, attempting to say, "Of course you didn't, your hand is covering my only way of speaking," but again, the muffles. He seemed to be getting frustrated so she rolled her eyes again and stuck her tongue out, catching his palm.

"Ew!" he yelled. "What was _that_ for?"

"Well, you were getting all disgruntled that I wasn't answering you when your hand was covering my mouth," she replied haughtily. "That was my only way of getting you to get your hand off of me."

He put his palm against the wall next to her head and leaned in close to her. "Why were you following me?" he asked again.

She scoffed. "I was _not_ following you, mister. You've got some ego going on there, you know. You should–you should really check that one out, buster. Whew! I think I can smell it. It stinks of distinct ego. Not to be confused with BO. I know they sound kind of alike."

He looked at her funnily. There was quiet for a few seconds as he tried to gather his thoughts before he asked, "_What?_"

She huffed. "Never mind."

He shook off the confusion and his eyes hardened as he leaned in closer. "You never answered my question. Why are you following me?"

"I–"

"And don't lie," he added.

"You–"

"Who are you working for?" he asked over her.

"Let me speak!" she yelled. "And–wait, what? Who am I _working _for? What kind of question is that? Uh, no one, obviously, you _crazy_."

He shuffled his feet. "I was just making sure. It's a standard question," he informed her.

"What, so you find yourself with stalkers often?" she asked wryly.

"So you admit it!" he yelled triumphantly. "You were stalking me!"

"I–" she started to say, before realizing the hole she had dug herself. Thinking fast, she sighed as if deflated and said, defeated, "Fine. You really want to know?"

He nodded his head, yes.

"Okay," she said. "I..." she leaned in closer, her voice only a little above a whisper. "My friend...well, she...alright, I'll just say it." She sighed loudly again. "My friend likes you. And she wanted me to see if, you know, you were seeing anyone. And I couldn't very well just go up to you and _ask_ you, you know, so I thought I'd just...follow you a bit and see if you met up with a girl or something."

Genius, if she did say so herself.

He leaned back, letting his hand drop from the wall and letting her have her space. He gave her a weird look.

"I know, dumb idea," she amended. "But I promised her I'd help her out."

"You're one weird girl, Thomas," he told her.

She grinned. "I've been told."

—x—

Jess sighed, looking around her dorm. She knew that she should be out attempting to steal dear old Paul away from the clutches of Alice Goody-Good Logan, but she wasn't particularly motivated. Truthfully, Paul wasn't that appealing to her. He was too..._nice_, really, something that she usually tried to steer clear of, but the dare thing had been her idea back when they were eleven, and she knew she'd have to go through with it. It wasn't just because it was her idea, she was also way to proud to a, have to do any of the consequences she had drawn up last night (examples: profess your love for Filch at dinner, streak during a Hogsmeade weekend, kiss Snape) and b, lose to the likes of nice little Trish, neurotic Eliza, and crazy Mandy.

She hauled herself off of her green bed and made her way out of the dungeons. If she knew anything, she knew that Paul Goode would not being hanging around there.

First, she checked near the Hufflepuff Common Room, also known as his own. He wasn't there, and she knew there was no way she would be able to get inside without being noticed as a Slytherin, so she wound the halls for a little while before deciding to look outside.

And there he was. For once, Alice was not by his side, and he was sitting by himself with books in front of him and a quill in his hand as he scratched his way across a parchment. Licking her lips and telling herself not to do _any_ of the things Eliza had suggested (ask for help in Charms, sing praises for his dear Alice–how that one was going to work in her favor, she didn't know, but she wasn't about to question Eliza), she made her way over to him. She had a few game plans in mind for later on (like telling him Alice was cheating on him), but for now she was going to be casual.

"Working on homework already?" she asked once she was in hearing range.

He looked up and saw her staring at him. "Me?" he asked stupidly.

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she smiled and said, "Of course."

"Oh," was his elegant reply.

"So?" she asked, as she slid to the ground next to him. "You never answered my question."

"Oh," he repeated. "Well, my older brother is getting married this Christmas break, and I'm his best man, so I've got to write a speech. I'm trying to find something clever and politically correct to say."

She chuckled. "Oh, I love a man who tries to be politically correct," she purred.

So, not her best pick up line, but it was definitely not her worst. She was fairly certain that at one point in time she had simply walked up to a guy and said, "You're hot. I'm hot. Can we _please_ have sex?" So, really? Step up, if you asked her.

Paul cleared his throat, his cheeks aflame just slightly. "Well, that doesn't much narrow down your pickings," he replied.

"I dunno," she mumbled, looking up at him through her lashes. "You tell me."

"Um," he said. "Wh–what?"

She smiled coyly at him and let her leg slide up a little bit and her school skirt slide down. "Come on," she muttered, her glossy lips in a pout, "You know what I mean?"

His cheeks could make scrambled eggs on them now. He looked away from her and tapped his quill against his books. He did not respond, instead clearing his throat again.

"I'm Jess Morgan," she introduced herself.

"I know who you are," he rushed to get out.

"Do you?" she asked. "Well, that makes things so much easier. I know who you are, too."

"Really?" he asked.

"Definitely," she affirmed, nodding her head and leaning closer to him. "How could I not?" She ran her finger up his arm. "Someone like you...well, I don't think it's possible not to notice you."

Just as she was leaning in a little more, the patented move that basically meant she had him hook, line, and sinker, Alice came bounding across the field. "Paul!" She called happily.

Jess watched as his face lit up at the sound of his name from her lips. A small sigh escaped her as she watched. Mandy had been right. They boy was hopelessly in love with Alice. She could tell even more when he gathered up all his books and leapt towards her, not even bothering to spare Jess a good-bye.

—x—

Eliza chewed on her lip nervously as she sat in her Common Room. She had her History of Magic book open on her lap and a barely touched piece of parchment on top of it. She had tried to start her essay that was due in three weeks, really, she had. But Robert was sitting in the Common Room, too. And even though she knew that she had nada feelings for him–not even one, she was absolutely sure–his presence was making her extremely apprehensive. It was like he was mocking her, saying, _Hey, I'm right here, I know you need to get into my bed, but I'm just going to play chess and ignore you!_ Really, he might as well have been wearing a t-shirt with it on it. She knew that's what he was thinking.

She shook her head and looked back down at her textbook. She was being absurd. What she needed to do was focus on her homework. That, she knew, always took her mind off of things.

Except for now. Every time she looked down she reread the same sentence over and over before her eyes drifted up to where Robert was sitting with his best friend Geoff and was virtually not paying a shred of attention to her. Honestly, couldn't he tell that she was sitting here staring at him? Other people could, she could tell. That weird girl that never went anywhere without a copy of the Bible, she noticed! And that guy that had asked her out in second year, but she said no because she had thought boys had cooties until she was thirteen, he had noticed, too.

So why wouldn't he look at her?

She cleared her throat loudly.

Nothing.

She cleared it even louder.

He kept laughing with Geoff.

She started coughing.

Still, he was oblivious.

She started hacking, banging herself on the chest.

And absolutely nothing!

"COUGH, COUGH!" she yelled loudly.

"Are you okay?" asked the Bible girl, putting down the Bible for a moment to stare at Eliza in something that seemed to be a cross between concern and fear.

"I'm fine," Eliza barked. "Continue worshiping Jesus or whatever it is that you do with that thing."

The girl knitted her brows together and hugged the Bible to her chest. It was silent for a few seconds before she got up and went to her dormitory. Eliza thought she heard sniffling but she wasn't quite certain nor did she particularly care at that moment.

Robert was still not looking at her.

She sighed for what felt like the eightieth time that day. She looked back down at her textbook. This was insane. Boys shouldn't affect her so much. After all, it seemed that she wasn't affecting him. She shouldn't care. In fact, she didn't care!

_Yeah,_ she told herself. _I don't need you, Robert Adams. You don't mean anything to me except a lay, and even then just because I was dared! I'm going to concentrate on my homework and ignore you completely! Take that!_

Eliza smiled triumphantly, snuggling into the sofa. She propped her book up and looked down to where she left off. She read for a moment...before realizing that she was still on the same sentence. She glanced up at Robert (who was still laughing, by the way) and glanced back down at the book.

Disgruntled, she stood up in a huff and snapped her book closed. "Screw you, Robert Adams!" she yelled to him. This, he noticed and looked over to her, confused, as Geoff snickered under his breath.

She stomped her way up to her dorm and stayed there for the rest of the night.

—x—

Trish had no idea how to find a guy to skinny dip with. It wasn't particularly something that she did. At all. Ever. And now that she was being forced to, she didn't know how to go about it. Did she just find a boy that looked a bit appealing and ask him? Did she have to find someone to have a relationship with before she asked him to skinny dip with her? Or could she just wait in the water, naked, until someone came out to greet her?

She dug out the guidelines that Eliza had drawn up for her. She didn't think anything on here would really help her much, but she decided to go with the first thing on this list: hang out by the lake.

She left her Common Room and went outside to the lake. On one side, she could see Jess trying to work her magic on innocent Paul Goode. By the looks of it, he was flustered but not all that interested. She shook her head and ignored it; she had to focus on her own dare right now.

She scanned the people around the lake, vetoing in her head all the ones that she knew wouldn't skinny dip with her or were generally off limits. For starters, Paul Goode, and definitely not Severus Snape. She preferred not to go with any of the really young kids, but if that's what it got down to...well, who was she to say no? And then she wasn't going to with any of her ex-boyfriend, so that was a no to Asher Smith, Chris Williams, and Peter Samson who were all by the lake.

The rest of the pickings were slim. The Marauders, minus Sirius Black, mysteriously, were there, but she thought that she would avoid skinny dipping with them until necessary, and so was Tom Garwin, Tom Garwin's little brother, and...a bunch of girls.

Tom Garwin it was, then.

She walked slowly over to him. She was blushing just at the thought of skinny dipping with him. He was particularly hard on the eyes, even if he really liked to shove peas up his nose and make mud pies. Really, none of those things had to do with skinny dipping, so she figured she was in the clear as far as that was concerned.

Suddenly, she was right in front of him. He looked up at her questioningly, considering the fact that they didn't really talk because he was a Ravenclaw and a year younger than her, and again, the peas and mud pies, but she smiled at him weakly. Okay, it might have been a bit of a grimace.

Her eyes flicked to his little brother, an innocent little second year, who was sitting next to him, before looking back at Tom. "Doyouwanttoskinnydipwithmetonight?" she asked.

He looked confused. "Pardon?" he asked.

"I said," she said, sighing and this time saying slowly, "Do you want to skinny dip with me tonight?"

Now he looked confused _and _sickened. His brother looked a bit green and was almost on the verge of tears. Tom stood up quickly and pulled his brother along with him, shooting her a nasty look.

"What?" she asked as he walked away. "What?" she repeated. He didn't look back or even seem to have heard her. "Fine!" she screamed at his back. "I didn't want to skinny dip with you anyways! God, you could have just said no!"

He didn't answer. Feeling kind of embarrassed, she yelled, " And you're ugly, too! I would never want to skinny dip with you! It was just a joke! Ha! A cruel joke! Haha! On you! Ha! Skinny dip! Haha! With you! _Ha!_"

His brother kneeled over and spewed his lunch all over the grass and his shoes.

"Um...was that my fault?" she asked shakily. Tom shot her another angry look as he tried to push his brother towards the castle but only got him vomiting more. "Sorry," she called weakly, before connecting her face with her palm and wishing that world would swallow her whole.


	3. The Birth of a Plan

Trish walked slowly over to where Mandy and Jess were sitting. She wasn't sure if she was still blushing from what happened earlier in the afternoon, but it seemed that now, by dinnertime, a fair amount of people had heard about it, judging on the glances she was getting. She scanned the tables for any sign of Tom Garwin, but it seemed that he as well as his brother were no where to be seen.

"Hi," she mumbled in greeting, taking a seat next to Mandy at the Slytherin table.

"Hello," Mandy greeted her, perfectly chipper. "What's wrong with you?"

Trish groaned, the blush coming back again. "I think I've gone insane," she told her friends.

Jess snorted. "Oh, you mean the scene with Garwin and his little brother?" At Trish's mortified face, Jess snickered and continued, "Great job, man. I was on the edge of my seat."

"Shut up," Trish groaned, putting her face in her hands.

"Wait, what scene with Garwin? Tom Garwin?" Mandy asked, confused.

"You haven't heard?" Mandy shook her head and Jess continued with a wicked grin on her face, "Trish over here decided to go up to Tom Garwin and his little brother and ask, point blank, if Tom would like to skinny dip with her."

Trish groaned again. Mandy had a sympathetic face border lining with humor as she rubbed Trish's back in comfort.

"So, Tom's all, 'no, dude,' and gets up with his brother and leaves, who is looking a bit peaky, mind you. And Trish starts screaming at his back about how she didn't want to skinny dip with him anyways and how he's ugly and it was a joke and all that."

Trish, by now, had her face in the crook of her arm on the table, attempting to beat the memory out of her head with her fist. Mandy was trying her best not to chuckle as she tried to help Trish feel more comfortable.

"And then his brother throws up!" Jess said in amusement. "And Trish is all, was that my fault? And he throws up again!" She fell into laughter, wiping tears from her eyes. "You should have seen it. It was classic."

"I don't think I'm hungry anymore," Trish said, pulling herself away from the table and stomping her way out of the Great Hall.

"Aw, c'mon, T!" Jess yelled after her, still laughing. "I was just telling her what happened! No need to be embarrassed."

The doors slammed shut behind Trish. Mandy looked back over at Jess, shaking her head. There was silence for a few seconds before she asked, "So...where's E?"

—x—

The next morning dawned too early for Eliza. Her roommates, after hearing about what had happened yesterday with Robert, had asked her about it multiple times. Her pride ran too high so she grumbled and yelled at them for a little bit before shutting herself off in her bed and moping for the next hours. Eventually, she fell into a light sleep where she dreamed that everything she thought was spewed out of her lips, and everything had to do with Robert and he was standing right in front of her through a glass window, hearing everything but out of reach, and he was laughing at her.

She could hear the commotion outside of her bed as her roommates started getting ready for the day. Taking a deep breath, she threw her curtains open.

Movement stopped, as did the casual conversation.

Needless to say, she got ready quickly and accidently put on two different pairs of shoes on her feet. And again, her pride, so she bit her lip and continued down to the Great Hall with her different shoed feet.

Her friends were already there at the Ravenclaw table without her. She slid into a seat next to Trish and loaded her plate up quickly.

"Hi to you too," Mandy said wryly, taking a sip of her pumpkin juice.

"I had a bad night," Eliza informed them, "Sorry if I'm tense."

"Tense, you're like a brick wall," Jess commented, poking at Eliza's tightened arm muscles.

"Yes, well, that's what happens when you yell things that don't make any sense at the boy you're supposed to eventually do the dirty with and everyone in your house hears you," she said, concentrating on her eggs.

"Well, if it helps any, Sirius thinks one of you are in love with him," Mandy fessed up.

"Paul is hopelessly in love with Alice," Jess put in.

"I yelled at Tom Garwin about skinny dipping and his brother threw up all over the place," Trish mumbled.

All of three girls winced and looked over at her. "You win," they said.

Trish snorted. "Yeah." She glanced around her and saw people shooting looks at her before looking away as fast as they could. "And everyone knows about it, too."

"Well, on the bright side, people know you're on the market for skinny dipping," Mandy said.

Trish only grumbled.

"Hey, Eliza?" a new voice asked from behind Jess and Eliza. Eliza froze, recognizing the voice as Jess turned and grinned at him. Trish and Mandy looked up from their food eagerly and watched to see what was about to happen.

"Yes, Robert?" Eliza mumbled, barely audible.

"Hi, I'm Jess," Jess introduced herself, putting her hand out for Robert to shake. He did so and smiled kind of awkwardly. "I'm best friends with Eliza here. Sorry for what she did yesterday. It was really, really quite–"

Eliza elbowed her in the side and Jess shut up, rubbing her ribs and scowling.

"Well," Robert started, "I just came over here to ask Eliza if I could talk to her."

"Sure," Jess said.

"Alone," he amended.

There was a tense silence as everyone watched Eliza's reaction. Slowly, without turning around, she got up and walked out of the hall, Robert following her diligently. Once they were in the hall, Eliza turned to face him, avoiding his eyes, and crossed her arms. "What'd you want to talk about?" she asked grudgingly.

"Um, well," he said, scratching at the back of his neck, still being awkward. "I was wondering...why you yelled at me yesterday in the Common Room."

"Oh, well, you know..." she mumbled. "Just 'cause."

"Just because?" he asked, stepping closer to her. "That doesn't make much sense." He took another step towards her, and even though there was clearly at least five feet in between them, Eliza backed herself away into a wall.

"Stop getting so close to me!" she yelled at him. "Jeez, ever heard of a personal bubble before? _God_."

"Sorry," he apologized, and stopped moving closer. "I was just curious."

"Yeah, well, don't be," she snapped. "For all you know, I could heave tourettes and that's why I was yelling at you! Do you have any sympathy whatso_ever_?"

Now he was the one backing up. "Sure, Eliza."

"Good!" she barked. She started walking down the hall, away from him, yelling loudly about "stupid boys" and "how dare you?"

—x—

Jess watched Paul in the one class she had with him. He was, of course, sitting next to his perfect little girlfriend, Alice, as the two of them were partners for the Potions experiment they were doing.

Jess slammed the spoon down on the table, spraying the potion she was making across the floor, causing it to sizzle and bubble a bit. "What does she have that I don't?" she demanded of her partner, a shy Hufflepuff named Lucy Wooder.

"I–I," Lucy stuttered. "Who?"

A boy slipped on the spilled potion on the floor. He writhed in pain, yelling, "My back, it's burning!"

"Oh, walk it off, you baby," Jess barked, before turning back to Lucy and continuing their conversation. "Alice! What does Paul _see_ in her? What does she have that I don't?"

"Well..." Lucy started. "She–"

"Oh, don't even finish that sentence. I know I won't like it."

Lucy was instantly quiet, but a plan was quickly formulating in Jess's mind.

Abruptly, she stood from her seat. Ignoring Slughorn' concerns as to where she was going, she swayed her way over to where Paul and Alice were sitting. She stopped right in front of them and jutted out one of her hips, a beautiful and malicious grin already plastered onto her face.

They did not look up.

She cleared her throat, barking, "Hello!"

Their heads snapped to attention. Taking note of who was in front of them, Paul turned a light shade of red while Alice awkwardly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear."Hello," she answered.

The grin was back on Jess's face full force. "Hi, Paul," she purred.

"Um, hi, Jess," he replied, looking back down to concentrate on the roots he was cutting.

Jess leaned over, making sure that her boobs were easily on display. "How are you doing?"

He didn't look up from his roots. "Just fine, thanks for asking," he told her while Alice cleared her throat loudly.

"I'm sure I could make you better than 'just fine'..." Jess suggested.

Alice made a squeak while Paul coughed loudly, as if choking. Jess grinned, thinking her plan was working, before Slughorn came up behind her.

"Miss Morgan, I suggest you get back to your seat," he said.

She started to sashay her way away, making sure to shoot Paul a grin before she turned around, but when she turned back around she saw their hands linked together and Paul whispering while Alice grinned.

Time for a new plan.

—x—

"I need you to help me get into Paul's room."

Mandy struggled against Jess's clutches on her arm. "Jesus, Jess, have you been working out?" she asked, finally prying her arm away and almost falling on her butt.

"That's not the point," Jess snapped, "I need to get into Paul's room. I need you to help me."

Mandy was still rubbing her arm. "I don't even want to know why you need to get into Paul's room because I know I'll have to wash my ears out afterwards, but why do you need _my_ help? I'm a Gryffindor. Ask Trish."

"Oh, yes," Jess commented wryly. "Let me just go up to Trish and ask her if she could happen to let me in so I can lay naked on Paul's bed–"

"I said I didn't want to know!" Mandy yelped, covering her ears against more offensive comments.

Jess sighed and pulled Mandy's hands away so she could listen. "The point is that Trish isn't enough of a horn-dog."

"And I am?" Mandy asked incredulously.

"Well, you're a Gryffindor. You're supposed to be brave and stuff."

"Why can't you just do it yourself?"

"_Because_," Jess stressed. "I need a right hand man. And you, my friend, are perfect for the job."

Mandy sighed, crossing her arms in a pout.

"So, M? Will you help me?"

"I suppose..." she agreed grudgingly.

And thus was born the worst plan ever thought of.

—x—

Mandy sat quietly in the library after classes were over. She had figured that she could go there for a little peace and quiet, but it seemed that the Marauders thought the library to be a playground for they were as loud as you could be without getting thrown out of the place. Lily Evans was sitting at the table next to her, sighing exasperadly every now and then and shooting the Marauders angry looks.

She tapped her quill against her parchment, not bothering to care about the splotches of ink that were being splattered all over her page. Today had been boring, save for Jess's crazy plan to break into Paul's room. They were going to execute it the next time, because Jess needed 'time to prepare,' whatever that meant.

"Are they annoying you as much as they're annoying me?" Lily asked her.

Mandy looked over at her and grinned. "I'm attempting to tune them out," she replied.

"Is that even possible?" Lily grumbled. "I've been thinking about throwing my History of Magic textbook at them for the past twenty minutes."

"If anything I think that would cause more noise," Mandy said, chuckling appreciatively.

"Whatever," Lily mumbled. "I mean, what are they even doing in here? They aren't studying, I know that."

Mandy surveyed them. It seemed that Peter was attempting to shove as many flavored beans up his nose as possible while the other boys cheered him on. "Definitely not," she agreed.

Peter seemed to have reached his limit and sneezed all of the beans out of his nose. James, Sirius and Remus boo-ed appropriately.

"Hey, fellas," Lily called to them. "Some of us are trying to study." She signaled to the books in front of her. "Mind taking your circus somewhere else?"

"Why, Lily!" James cried. "I didn't even see you there!"

Lily sighed, rubbing her eyelids.

"You set yourself up for that one, mate," Mandy muttered to her. Lily nodded her head wearily.

"Yes, well, now that you have, could you boys go to the Common Room or stop being so loud?" she asked politely. "Please?"

James leapt closer to her. "Are you sure you don't want any help with your studies, madam?"

Lily slammed her book closed and shoved it into her bag. "You know what? I think I'll leave." She swiftly started walking out of the library, James hot on her trail.

"Oh, Lily, I didn't mean to push you out of the library," James was saying as he followed her. "Please, let me make it up to you..."

"One of the beans is stuck," Peter whined. Sirius clapped him on the back and shook his head while they followed after James and Lily. Remus gave her a polite nod while Sirius didn't even notice her.

This was going to be harder than she thought.

—x—

Trish was sick and tired of this day. During the entire thing, snickers and catcalls followed her around. One ballsy guy even came up to her and said, "So, did you want to skinny dip with Tom or his brother?"

Needless to say, not a good day. All that was keeping her from banging her head against the stone wall was that the day was almost over and all she had to do was go to dinner and then go to bed. It was a small piece of heaven in her day from hell.

She met up with the rest of the girls at the Gryffindor table. Jess and Mandy seemed to be having a hushed conversation while Eliza sat quietly with a pout on her face while she pushed her food around on her plate.

None of the girls looked up when she sat down next to Eliza.

"Hey, guys," she said, a small and failing attempt to be cheerful.

Mandy and Jess continued with their conversation. Eliza huffed and mumbled a hello under her breath.

"What's with you?"

"Nothing," Eliza answered, slamming her fork down on the table and pushing her plate away from her. "I'm not hungry anymore."

Trish nodded to Mandy and Jess. "What are they doing?"

Eliza shrugged. "Who knows?" she asked. "They've been like that since I got here."

"Hey, guys," Trish called, snapping her fingers across the table to Jess and Mandy. "Guys!"

Jess turned her head to the other two girls. "What?" she snapped.

"What are you guys cooking up?" Trish asked.

Mandy shrugged. "Not much, just a little undercover work that is going to be done."

"Wanna fill us in?" Eliza asked morosely.

"Can't," Jess answered, grabbing her stuff and pulling Mandy up with her. "We gotta jet. We'll fill you gals in later, alright? See you."

With that, Mandy and Jess shuffled quickly out of the Great Hall, whispering the entire way. Eliza and Trish watched them go; Trish curiously, Eliza just because she didn't feel like moving her eyes.

"So, really," Trish said, turning to Eliza. "What's wrong with you?"

Eliza sighed loudly. "Robert now thinks that I have tourettes," she confessed.

If she had been drinking something, Trish was sure she would have spit it all out. "What?" she asked incredulously. "Why?"

"I kind of insinuated it this morning when we were talking. I didn't mean to, but he was pestering me and I was angry." Eliza sighed loudly again, picking up her satchel and standing up. "I think I'll go to bed now. I don't want to think about it anymore. Bye."

"Bye," Trish called after Eliza.

It was now suddenly very quiet without her friends around her. She couldn't remember the last time that she hadn't had at least one of them around her.

She shook her head at herself and began loading her plate up with food. It looked like she'd be eating alone tonight.


	4. Falling Into Your Arms

The timing was perfect. It was already dark outside, but early enough that they were fairly certain no one would be in bed by now and they were still allowed to be in the halls since it was before curfew, if only just.

It wasn't until they got to the Hufflepuff Common Room door that Mandy realized the error in their plan. She stopped abruptly, pulling on Jess's arm to get her to stop as well.

"What?" Jess asked impatiently.

"We can't just walk into the Common Room," Mandy said.

"Yes, we can," Jess argued, pulling free of Mandy's grip and walking closer to the door. "We have the password, we'll just slip in. That's the plan."

"We're not exactly inconspicuous," Mandy pointed out, motioning to their all black spandex cat burglar clothes. "Not to mention that we were banking on the fact that he'd still be in the Common Room. He'll notice us."

Jess was quiet for a moment, going over the obvious mistake in their planning. "Damn it," she muttered. "Why did I let you dress us like this?"

"Me?" Mandy yelped. "It was your idea!"

Jess waved the thought away. "And how did we totally overlook that he'd be in the Common Room? That was so stupid," she groaned.

There was silence for a few moments while Jess bit her lip and Mandy tried to make herself as small as possible so that no innocent bystanders would notice her odd sense of fashion and her loitering outside the Hufflepuff Common Room. Personally, she just wanted to go back to her own Common Room and not deal with whatever new plan that Jess was cooking up, but she knew it was her duty as Jess's best friend (and Jess would totally owe her after this one, anyways) to stick around, so she did.

"Okay," Jess finally said. "I've got a plan. Come with me."

She led the way swiftly down the corridor and down the stairs. Not even breaking her stride, she flung the doors to the castle open and continued on her journey.

She paused at one side of the castle, glaring up at the windows as if judging something. "This is about where the Hufflepuff Common Room is, right?" she asked.

"I guess," Mandy hedged.

"Alright, good." Jess started looking around as if a teleport would happen to appear next to her any second.

"Why?" Mandy asked. "What are we gonna do, scale the wall?" At Jess's silence to the question, she backtracked wildly. "Whoa, hold it," she demanded. "We're not _scaling_ Hogwarts."

"Why not?" Jess asked, conjuring some rope. "The Hufflepuff Common Room is only on the fourth floor. It wouldn't be much of a climb to get to his dorm."

Mandy spluttered. "Much of a _climb_? J, you're insane!"

"No, I'm practical," she said, lifting the rope and attempting to toss it to the fourth floor. It didn't work.

"How do you plan on getting it up there?" Mandy asked incredulously. "And securing it so we don't fall to our doom?"

"Easily," Jess replied. She pulled her wand out of her boot and waved it at the rope, making it float up to a window on the fourth floor. Once it was there, she waved her wand in an intricate way that had it tying around something inside the window.

"What–?" Mandy asked.

Jess grabbed a hold of the rope, tugging on it. "Seems like it'll hold," she commented.

"Seems?" Mandy questioned, just when Jess lifted herself off of the ground and let her body hang from the rope. "Don't do that!"

"Yeah, it's sturdy," Jess confirmed.

Mandy moaned. "You're insane," she said.

Jess shrugged. "I do what I gotta do."

"Why do I have to come with you?" Mandy asked as Jess started to climb, her feet placed against the castle wall to keep her balance.

"Because," Jess said, "I need you. I am in luuuh with you."

"Yeah," Mandy snorted wryly. "I'm in 'luh' with you, too."

"No, but really, I need you. First because I don't want to go alone. Second because I need to make sure that I get in and everything okay. And third because I need you to tell me what I'm doing _wrong_." She shook her head at herself as Mandy hesitantly started to climb after her, hoping the it would hold both of their weight. It seemed that it did.

"I mean," she continued. "I've done this loads of times. Stealing boys from unsuspecting girlfriends is my specialty. But there must of have been a class I missed on this one, because no matter what I do he never seems interested."

"Maybe you should wait out the school year for them to break up," Mandy suggested.

Jess shook her head again. "Too risky. What if they stay together forever?" She didn't wait for a response. "Anyways, if this works out then you don't have to stay hanging onto a rope the whole time. You can leave."

"Gee, how generous of you," Mandy sniped sarcastically.

"Come on," Jess said as she heaved herself into the window. "I'm–this isn't right."

"What?" Mandy called up to her.

"This isn't right," Jess said, peering outside to Mandy. "I'm pretty sure this is the girls dorm."

Mandy groaned. "Great," she said, looking around at the other windows.

"It can't be far," Jess commented, more to herself than Mandy, as she looked around at the other windows on that floor. "Hey!" she yelped. "Hey, hey, hey! Isn't that Will Applegate two windows over? Isn't he one of Paul's roommates?"

Mandy glared up at the windows. "How can you tell?" she asked. "I can't see anything."

"I can tell," Jess insisted, climbing out of the window.

"How do you plan on getting over there?" Mandy asked, her hands started to hurt from holding onto the rope.

Jess breathed loudly, placing her feet on the window sill and getting a hold of the uneven castle wall. "Now," she told Mandy, "I'm _really_ going to scale the wall."

—x—

"Do you think this matches?" asked one of Trish's many self-centered roommates, Kara.

"Yes," was Trish's automatic reply without even looking up from the magazine in her hand.

"You're not even looking," Kara whined. "How can I tell if you're not even looking?"

Trish looked up, a bored expression on her face as she took in the red blouse and purple skirt. "Matches perfectly," she lied, before looking back at her magazine with a sigh.

Kara stared at Trish for a moment before putting down the clothes and coming closer. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Trish shrugged. "Nothing," she mumbled. She rolled over onto her back with a sigh before posing a question. "Kara, what would you do to get a guy to skinny dip with you?"

Kara gave her a sympathetic look at sat down on her bed. "Tom?" she asked.

"No," Trish snapped, sitting up. "Not Tom. God."

"It's alright," Kara replied, patting Trish's leg. "I heard about what happened. But do you really think it's wise to be asking such personal questions? Maybe you should find out what you're comfortable with before you jump in the Lake with someone, so to speak."

Trish made a noise somewhere between a growl and a frustrated breath. "Thanks," she mumbled, not meaning it. "I think I'm going to go for a walk."

"You do that," was Kara's sympathetic reply. "And think about what I said, sweetie."

Grumbling, Trish exited her dorm and walked slowly through the halls of Hogwarts. It was late and almost curfew, so not many people were out, which was just what she needed. She didn't want any of the judgement anymore. Really, you'd think that one measly little question had been asked of everyone in the school, the way they were acting. Couldn't they just mind their business?

_Not in Hogwarts_, Trish thought to herself, knowing that if there was even a slight possibility for a rumor, it was circulated and over exaggerated in the next hour. The only thing was, her story didn't need to be exaggerated, and half the school had seen it first hand.

She made her way outside and gravitated towards the Lake against her better judgment. Now it would seem as if she really was a skinny dipping hussy, but what else was she supposed to do? If she didn't go through with it, she'd have to do something horrid like kiss Snape, and knowing Jess she would have no mercy if she backed out. So the only thing to do was bite her tongue, hold back her pride, and go through with it.

"Need some company?" a deep voice asked from behind her.

Trish screeched, jumping at least three feet in the air. She turned around and saw Benjy Fenwick, a Sixth Year Gryffindor, behind her, ducking under some branches to get to her.

"Sorry for the scare," he chuckled.

"It's okay," she gasped, clutching her heart. "I just...wasn't expecting anyone out here."

He shrugged. "Neither was I." He settled down next to her, looking out at the Lake rather than at her. "I hope this is okay," he added, leaning towards her a bit and then leaning back.

"Yeah, it's fine," she assured him. "I'm Trish."

"I know," he told her, giving her a sideways look as she blushed. "Sorry," he laughed. "But you've kind of been the talk around school today."

"I know," she groaned, burying her face in her hands. "I'm really not as big of a slut as that makes me sound."

"Hey," he said softly, pulling her hands away from her crimson face. "It's okay. I know you aren't. I'm Benjy."

She gave him a small smile. "Good to meet you," she muttered shyly.

He grinned back and nudged his shoulder to hers. "You too."

—x—

Eliza was sitting in her Common Room innocently. Her homework was laid out before her as she diligently worked her way through it, eyebrow twitching every now and then at the noise level, but she couldn't very well go back to her dorm seeing as all the girls were still mad at her for snapping at them.

The Bible girl was sitting next to her again. Every now and then, she'd glance up from what she was reading and stare long and hard at Eliza before going back to reading. It had happened eight times since Eliza had come into the Common Room, and if she didn't stop soon enough, she really thought she might–

"Eliza?" someone asked.

Her head snapped up at the sound of her name, relieved that someone had snapped her out of it before she'd taken the girl's Bible and ripped it to shreds.

That is, until she realized who it was that had called her name.

She groaned loudly, gathering her stuff up in her arms and shoving it into her bag. "What do you want, Robert?" she asked, slinging her bag over her shoulder and continuing on her fast escape from the Common Room.

"I wanted to apologize," he said, following after her. "Again. I didn't know about your..." He glanced around the empty hallway they'd just entered. "Condition. If I had I wouldn't have been so insensitive."

Eliza looked up at him, taking in his sincere eyes. Did guys like this really exist? She wondered. She had been the one who was the jerk and yelled at him inappropriately and then fed him lies, and yet here he was apologizing.

"It's alright," she said coolly, hiking her bag higher up on her shoulder. "I'm, you know, used to it."

"You shouldn't have to be," he insisted. "You handle it so well, and I shouldn't have been so harsh about it when I didn't know what was going on with you."

"It's fine."

There was silence except for the sound of their shoes on the stone floor. Robert looked over at her nervously. "Are we friends?" he asked. "I don't want us to lose our friendship because of my stupidity."

She sighed, turning towards him. "I guess," she said as if grudgingly. "I mean, you didn't know."

He breathed out in relief, pulling her towards him in a hug. "Thanks, Eliza," he mumbled against her hair. "I didn't want us to lose this. You mean a lot to me."

She hesitantly wrapped her arms around him as well. "You mean a lot to me, too," she answered.

Well. In an 'I have to have sex with you' kind of way.

—x—

Mandy huffed impatiently. She'd been hanging on this rope for at least ten minutes since Jess had found her way into Paul's dorm. Now, Jess was waiting for Paul to come back to his room, but in the mean time, Mandy was expected to hang around and wait while Jess lay naked on Paul's bed.

"Naked," Mandy muttered angrily. "That is so juvenile. Honestly, what ever happened to innocent and wholesome fun?"

"I can hear you," Jess called out of the window a few down from where Mandy was hanging.

"_I can hear you_," Mandy mimicked in a horrible imitation of Jess's higher voice.

"You know, it's not very–" Jess was saying, but Mandy suddenly could not hear any of it.

The rope was giving out from under her fingers. She could see it fraying from what it was tied around from the weight of her body as well as Jess's previously. It was going to snap any second, and then she was going to fall, and–

"Jess," Mandy called out, "Jess, the rope is ripping!"

"What?" Jess asked loudly.

"The rope is ripping and I'm going to–"

The rope ripped. Mandy screamed as she fell a few feet before her hands miraculously found home on an uneven part of the castle wall.

"M?" Jess yelled. "M, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Mandy gasped. "But I can't get down."

Jess didn't answer.

"I don't know how long I can hold onto this ledge," Mandy told her. "I'll fall any second."

"It's not that long of a fall," Jess commented lightly. 'You'll probably just break your arm or something."

"Jess!" Mandy yelled.

"What? Pompfrey can fix that in a second."

"I don't want to break my arm! What if I fall on my head? Come help me up."

"Ooh, shush–Paul's coming!" was Jess's giddy reply.

Mandy squeaked in indignation as she heard her best friend flirt a few floors up and to the right of her while she was hanging from a small ledge on the wall of a castle. It was only after the indignation wore off that she realized that it was a long way down and there was nothing she could do about the fall.

Her grip on the wall was starting to slip. If Jess didn't hurry up, she was going to fall to her death. Or, at least to her broken arm. Either one didn't sound particularly appealing.

"Oh, God," she muttered under her breath. "I can't believe I did this. Of all the crazy things Jess could cook up in that wacko head of hers, I had to go along with this one. I am and idiot...and oh, is it a long way down."

"Thomas?" a skeptical voice called out.

Mandy tried her best to turn her head to see who was there, but she couldn't manage it without falling to her doom. "Who's there?" she asked. "Better yet, _how_ are you there?" She heard a chuckle. "Listen, buster, I have a wand and I'm not afraid to use it."

"While hanging onto a wall?" they asked wryly.

"Yes! Even though I don't know how you're talking to me, so you must be like, a giant or have super ninja powers, or, ooh, maybe–!"

And that would be the precise moment her hands slipped and she started to fall.

"Hooolyyy fuuuck!" she screamed as she fell.

And then she wasn't falling anymore. Prying her eyes open, she looked around curiously. What she was met with was the sight of Sirius Black holding her while they hovered in the air.

"A broom," she said faintly. "You're on a broom. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you were hanging onto a wall for dear life?" she guessed.

"No," she said, lost in thought. "I don't think that's why..."

"What were you even doing, hanging onto a castle wall for fun?" He slowly started guiding them to the ground.

She sighed, slumping against him as she crossed her arms grumpily. "Something to do with being naked, innocent boys, and stupid Slytherins." At his startled and amused look, she added, "You don't want to know. And why are we going so slow?"

He looked at her oddly. "Well, I thought you wouldn't want to go too fast, considering–"

She sighed loudly again, turning herself so that she had a leg on each side of the broom and Sirius was behind her. Grabbing a hold of the broom, she yelled, "Here we go!"

She shot the broom towards the ground, laughing as she heard Sirius scream in surprise and scramble to grab a hold of the broom. Once he did, instead of slowing them down, he sped up, going around in a circle, now laughing himself as Mandy screamed in joy.


	5. The Thing With the Yellow Eyes

Trish looked over at Benjy. They'd been sitting in silence for a few seconds and now she was getting curious. He was a pretty okay looking guy, with light green eyes and short brown hair. And sure, he was a year younger, but that didn't really mean much, did it? And perhaps–

Okay. This dare was driving her insane.

"So, what brings you out here, anyways?" she asked.

He glanced over at her. "I come out here a lot of times at night," he divulged. "I'm a bit of an insomniac."

Trish winced. "That sucks. I love my sleep."

"Yes, most people do," he laughed. It was silent for a second longer before he asked, "I know we don't particularly know each other, but can I ask you something?"

"Sure," she agreed hesitantly, knowing what the question would be: Why did you ask Garwin to skinny dip? Or, th ever present, Do _you_ want to skinny dip with me? Or, hey, why not even, Do you want to _sleep_ with me? Trish had definitely heard that one a few times today.

"What are _you_ doing out here?" he asked instead.

'Wh–what?" Trish asked, completely off-guard.

"I mean," he continued. "Regularly, I wouldn't find it weird if a bird was sitting around the Lake, but after what happened...well, I figured you'd want to stay holed up inside."

"I was," Trish told him. "But my roommate was driving me bonkers. I had to get out of there."

"So why here?"

"It's where my feet led me, I suppose," was the only answer she could give.

—x—

"So," Robert said once he and Eliza had pulled away from their hug. "What is our first order of business as friends?"

"What?" Eliza asked, still reeling from the major turn of events.

"Come on," he coaxed, bumping his hip to hers. "Now that we're friends, we've got to do something to commemorate this occasion. Like...toast!"

"We're going to eat toast...to commemorate our friendship?" Eliza asked wryly.

Robert shook his head with a grin. "No, we'll toast with champagne. Or, you know, fire whiskey. Whatever works."

Eliza smiled. "I think I can work with that."

The two made their way to the kitchens quietly. Once there, they were attacked by the small house elves.

"Miss! Mister! Is nice of you to be joining us! What is you wanting to eat?" the once in front asked, the bow on top of her head flopping over into her eyes.

"Um," Eliza started, shooting a look to Robert. "We'd like some champagne, if you have any."

"We do, we do! I is getting it for you now." The house elf hurried off while the others stared up at Eliza and Robert dreamily.

"Er..." Eliza started. "You can go about your business now."

The one in the front blinked up at her.

"Now," she added, getting a bit spooked. The house elves scurried and Robert looked over at her with a grin.

"Well, you're certainly kind," he commented.

"They kept staring," she mumbled. "I don't like being stared at."

The two sat down at one of the many small tables littered throughout the kitchens quietly. Robert surveyed the house elves with rapt attention while Eliza stared uncomfortably down at her bitten nails. She glanced up at him a few times, but his attention could not be swayed.

After a few tense moments, the house elf with the bow returned. "Here is your champagne," she said, carrying two glasses filled with the bubbly drink.

"Thank you," Robert accepted graciously. The house elf scurried off while he handed one of the champagne chutes to Eliza. "Here you are."

"Thank you," she muttered, accepting the drink.

He held his glass out to her, drawing himself up to his fullest height. "To us," he announced, holding out his glass to her. "To our new-found friendship and your ability to get over my stupidity." He grinned at her.

Eliza mustered up what was sure to look like a grimace. "I'll drink to that," she joked lamely, tapping her glass against his and taking a sip.

Robert downed his in a hurry and placed the drink lightly back on the table.

"Whoa there, cowboy," Eliza commented.

"Nasty stuff, that," he said, before hopping to his feet. "Well, come on then. Let's take a walk."

Eliza put down her still-full glass. "You're like a motor boat," she told him as she followed him out of the portrait. He called a 'thank you' over his shoulder at the house elves and laughed at Eliza's comment but didn't comment.

"You know," he said after a moment of silence. "They're quite fascinating, house elves."

Eliza groaned. "Please don't tell me you're one of _those_ people."

He shot her an amused albeit slightly confused look. "Those people?" he asked.

"Yeah, you know," she said, gesturing with her hands. "Those people who trip over themselves for house elf freedom even though there's no indication that house elves dislike their duties."

He shook his head at her. "What a pureblood," he joked.

"I'm serious," Eliza continued. "Trish is like that and Jesus, is it obnoxious. She brought up the topic of clothes with one of them and it practically ripped its ear off getting away from her."

He chuckled, leading her over to the staircases. "Well, that's just one case. How do you know that all house elves feel the same way?"

She stopped walking. "Hey," she called after him. When he turned, she gestured to the doors to her right. "You wanna go outside?"

He looked down at his watch. "It's almost curfew," he said slowly.

Eliza grinned. "Come on, Robby," she persuaded. "Live a little."

—x—

Mandy and Sirius swayed in the air on the broom. After their fast riding, they'd slowed to a stop to watch the large moon in the sky.

"It's pretty," Mandy whispered to the boy behind her.

"It's almost full," he told her.

"Does that make it any less pretty?" she asked, turning herself to raise an eyebrow at him.

He shrugged. "Depends on your take on it," he said. "Do you like werewolves?" He wiggled his eyebrows at her and grinned.

She chuckled. "Please. I severely doubt that there are any werewolves around _here_, also known as Hogwarts, also known as the safest place to be right now."

"So, werewolves are dangerous then?" he debated.

"I wouldn't know," Mandy shrugged. "That is what you're told when you're young, though."

Sirius snorted. "Yeah, that and all about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny."

"Why, Mr Black," Mandy joked. "You, in all your pureblood glory, have heard of the Easter bunny?"

His eyes darkened a bit but he grinned anyways. "Remus," he said, and she nodded knowingly in return. "What's your excuse?"

"My mum's a muggleborn and my dad's a Muggle."

"So, basically, you're like the ultra-Muggle witch?"

She grinned. "Something like that, yeah."

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, looking up at the sky once more. The scenery here was so much different than Mandy's home back in London. You could see the stars here so perfectly, something that she desperately missed during the summertime. It was nice to finally be able to see them again.

"So, can I ask you a question?" Sirius asked, lazily steering them around aimlessly.

"If you must."

"What in Merlin's _name_," he started, "were you hanging from a wall for?"

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you," she said.

"Almost like you killed yourself, you crazy lady," he commented.

"I was...helping a friend," she hedged.

"The crazy Slytherin," he filled in.

"That would be the one," she said, leaning back into him a bit more. Her eyes scanned the millions of trees below her to her right. The forest was larger from up here.

"I'm assuming Jess Morgan?" he asked.

She looked over at him. "How'd you know?"

"Well, first of all, she's insane." At this, Mandy laughed loudly. "Plus, you four House unifiers are almost as legendary as the Marauders." He grinned smugly at himself and dusted his shoulders.

Mandy shoved him. "Whatever!"

He chuckled. "Really, though. You guys are insane."

"We're unique," she rectified, lifting her chin.

"Eh," he muttered. "I don't like Slytherins."

"Or Hufflepuffs, or Ravenclaws?"

"Eh," he said again. It was quiet for a moment before he asked, "So which one of them likes me, anyways?"

Mandy blushed deeply. She had forgotten that she'd told him that. Her friends didn't seem to mind (they were also immersed in their own lives, anyways) but it only made her job of making him love her a bit harder.

She coughed loudly, banging against her chest. "I never said it was one of them."

"But I'll bet it is," he said.

"You," she said, her eyes shifting uneasily, "will just have to find out on your own."

—x—

She had to have been lying there for at least twenty minutes before he came. His roommates had been easy to get rid off–just a little pocket changed tossed their way and they were gone. However, Mandy liked to talk a lot while she was hanging from a ledge. And blah stinkin' blah about her falling, and then finally–_finally–_Paul was there.

His first words?

"Oh, my God!" His arm immediately went to shield his eyes from the sight in front of him. A grimace was lying across his face. His cheeks must have been as red as Jess's "Really Red" (lame name, if you asked her) nail polish.

For, there, lying across his bed, was Jess Morgan in all her naked glory.

"Hey, babe," she purred to him, propping herself up on her elbows.

"What are you doing?" he practically screamed.

"Well," she said as if telling a conspiracy. "I think it's pretty obvious, don't you?"

"No!" He was definitely yelling now. "No, I don't! What are you doing in here? How did you get in here? Is this what the guys meant about a surprise? Why are you _naked_? I have a girlfriend!"

"Was that last one a question, too?" she asked innocently, standing up slowly from the bed.

"Sit down!" he commanded when he heard the noise. "Sit back down!" He motioned with his hands for her to get as far away from him as possible.

Jess ignored him as she sidled up closer to him. "Don't deny this, Paul." She laid a finger on his arm and dragged it down.

He jumped away from her and slammed himself against the door behind him, as far as he could go without seeing anything. "Of course I'm denying this! I've got girlfriend. _Alice_," he stressed.

"Forget Alice," Jess commanded.

"Put your clothes on," he shot back.

"I'm afraid I can't do that."

"Why?" he demanded.

"Because I threw them out the window," she said lightly. It was true, too. The moment she got into his room and his roommates were gone, they'd gone straight out the window. She had figured she wouldn't need them.

"Why would you do something like that?" he asked.

"Because what we're going to do doesn't require clothes," she whispered in his ear.

He pushed himself farther into the door. "What we're doing is arguing and I'm positive that requires clothing," he responded.

"Not always."

"Get _out_," he told her. The force of his voice made her take a small step back but her pride wouldn't allow her to leave.

"What for?" she asked, going along with her act. "You know you want this. I'm not leaving."

He growled under his breath, groping the wall behind him for the door knob. Once he found it, he slid himself out, saying, "Fine. _I'll_ leave."

The door slammed in her face. She pulled back and balanced on the balls of her feet, blinking at the sight before her.

This hadn't happened to her before. Never in her entire life (ever!) had she offered a man sex and he had declined (_eh-ver_). Is this what it felt like? Being rejected? Was this how it was for everyone else?

Jess kept blinking. Once her eyes started to go blurry, she looked down at herself. She hadn't asked herself this question before in her life but–what was wrong with her? What it her body? Her hair? Her personality?

She sighed angrily and stomped over to the window. "Mandy!" she screeched.

—x—

Trish stood uneasily at the edge of the Lake. Her stomach was filled with knots and her hands were sweaty enough to start an ocean. How had she gotten herself into this? Why was Jess so stupid? And why, why, _why_ had she agreed to this in her eleven year old innocence?

"You coming?" Benjy asked her.

He was in the water. His clothes were on the ground next to her. He was in the water _naked_.

"It's warm!" he coaxed.

She was about to skinny dip with Benjy Fenwick.

She gulped loudly, swiping her palms against her thighs. "Is it, now?" she squeaked.

He grinned at her. "Yeah, it is."

She was so permanently embarrassed that her lame comment and his apparent amusement to it didn't even faze her. The only thing that was fazing her was that she was expected to get into the water with him. Naked.

And he wouldn't stop watching her.

"Come on," he said, swimming closer to her. She bit her lip anxiously. "This is what you wanted, right?"

No. This was not what she wanted. This was that Jess wanted her to do. This was what her friends wanted her to do. All she wanted to do was curl up under her covers and never come back out. This was the exact opposite of what she wanted to do.

"You scared?" Benjy asked, a bit taunting.

Trish bit her lip harder. She had to do this. No way was she going through with any of Jess's consequences. And no way was she going to chicken out when he was already in the water.

Her hands inched to her shirt. His grin widened. She peeled it off. It widened even more.

He threw himself onto his back, floating there and looking up at the sky. "That's more like it," he said.

Trish averted her eyes from his naked form. As quickly as she could while he wasn't looking, she took off the rest of her clothes and waded into the Lake with him.

"You lied!" she yelped, getting farther in so it covered her to her shoulders even though her instincts were yelling at her to get out of the water and go _home_. "This water's freezing!"

Benjy smiled and swam closer to her. "Well, I had to get you in here somehow."

"You could have just told me to get in," she chattered, hugging her body for an ounce of warmth.

"I had been for the past twenty minutes."

Her cheeks reddened a bit. "I was getting ready," she defended herself.

"Cold?" he asked, a small smile on his face as he watched her hug herself.

"Freezing, obviously," she muttered.

"Well, let me warm you up." And with that very cheesy, obviously rehearsed line, his lips pushed themselves onto hers. She had the distinct feeling of being an object. So much for Benjy Fenwick being a good guy.

His slimy tongue entered her mouth. One hand went behind her back while the other stayed by his side, slightly grazing her leg.

She hoped he couldn't tell she hadn't shaved in a few days.

—x—

Eliza stared while Robert talked. He'd only been talked for a few seconds but her mind was already wandering. She watched as his lips moved to form words. They were a bit small, and she didn't really like it. His nose was a bit angular, and she didn't really like that either. However, his eyes were a nice blue. She focused on those for a few seconds. It was then that she noticed he had stopped talked.

She smile. "Yeah, totally," she said, attempting to act as if she was interested in the conversation.

Robert smiled. "But then I went to my little brothers baseball game," he continued. "He's amazing at it, you know? He's only eleven and he's not coming here because he's a Muggle, but I'm so proud of him..."

He kept talking but Eliza focused on his eyes again.

He went to his little brothers baseball games. He was smiling and attentive in conversation. He admitted to being _proud_ of someone.

How was he so nice? Couldn't he tell she wasn't paying the least bit of attention to him? And didn't he know she was using him?

"Eliza?" he asked.

She shook her head wildly. "Sorry, what?"

"Am I boring you?" he teased.

She shook her head again. "No, no, I'm sorry, I just zoned." She shifted on the bench they were sitting on so she was completely facing him. "What did you say?"

"I asked if you had any siblings yourself."

"Oh, no,"she answered, her attention swaying once more."But Trish, Jess, and Mandy might as well be. We've known each other all our lives."

"Oh, really?" he asked. "That's so awesome, I..."

And the zoning continued...

—x—

Jess scurried her way down the rope she'd just conjured herself. The one that she'd used previously was laying strewn by her clothes and Mandy was no where in sight.

"Where did she go?" she grumbled, glancing around her surroundings. She didn't see Mandy anywhere nor did she see anything else other than darkness.

Finally, she reached the ground. She vanished the two ropes for no particular reason and grabbed her clothes. Just as she was about to stuff her legs into her school skirt, there was a sound behind her. Just a slight rustle. But it was enough to make her paranoia rear its head.

She froze, one leg lifted to put in her skirt. Her breathing stopped as she strained her ears to hear anymore.

Was it just her or was there breathing behind her as well.

_Alright, J. Stay calm. On the count of three, you're going to–_

A growl broke her train off thought.

_Three! _She thought wildly, throwing herself into a run in the opposite direction. More rustles behind her, more breathing–that thing was following her!

Her instincts were screaming for her to book it out of there. Despite that, she needed to see what it was that was chasing her. Call it her Slytherin morbid curiosity, but she knew that she needed to know and she needed to know now.

She took a quick glance behind her. All that she could see was two glinting yellow eyes before she fell to the ground.

Her mouth took in a bunch of grass while her knees scraped against the ground. She pounded her fists and jumped up as fast as she could. "This is so horror movie!" she screeched, trying to find the best place to go. The doors to the castle were in the opposite direction from where she was running. She could do a big loop of the castle, but that was so long and she was so not in shape for that. But where else was there to go?

"Mother fucker!" she yelled desperately. "What the hell did I do to deserve this, God?"

_You're trying to steal Paul from Alice, for one_, a voice sounding scarily like Trish said in her head.

"Oh, suck it, Trish!" she yelled out loud.

A tree was coming up on her right. Not giving herself any time to second guess her plan (a moronic one, just like the last one she came up with) she threw herself behind it and gasped for breath.

Nothing whizzed past her. Nothing came and ate her alive. Nothing happened.

There was no sound.

"I," she gasped, "am so dead." Preparing herself, she inched her way around the tree to take a look at where the _thing_ would be coming from.

There was nothing behind her.

She whipped her head around.

There was nothing in front of her, either.

She glanced in all directions.

Everything looked normal.

"I'm going crazy," she whispered.

Jess took a tentative step away from the tree. When nothing attacked her, she took another one. The fear was now settling in–this was the eye of the storm, wasn't it?–and she started sprinting again.

Nothing good could come from this. She was still running in the opposite direction of the doors to Hogwarts. She was coming up by the Lake, when she saw–were those..._people_?

—x—

Trish kept her eyes open while Benjy kissed her. This kiss was going down as the Worst Kiss of Her Life–and that included her first kiss, the one with Lucas Skylar, and he had a gland condition.

_How does one get so bad at kissing?_ Trish wondered, sighing against Benjy's mouth.

He must have taken the sigh as a good thing because he pushed himself closer to her.

_Of course_, she thought, _Just when I thought this couldn't get worse._

"Hello!" a voice suddenly called out. "Hello! Whoever you are, you have to get out of the lake right now! Hello!"

Benjy pulled away from her, sighing angrily. "Listen, lady," he started. "I don't give a rats ass about your prefect duties, I'm in the middle of–"

"I'm not a prefect!" the voice screamed. "There's something out here! You have to get out of the lake!"

Trish squinted into the darkness. "Jess?"

"Trish! Trish, come on!" Jess screamed. "Get out of the–are you _skinny dipping_? Go, T!"

Trish started wading closer to shore. Once she reached it, Jess jogged over to her. "I didn't know you had it in you," Jess whispered. "Who's the lucky–"

"What's out here?" Trish interrupted her, grabbing her clothes from the ground. "Why–Jess, are you _naked_?"

Jess looked down at herself unabashed. "So are you," she shot back.

Trish clutched the clothes to her wet body while Benjy came up behind her. "Can we help you with something?" he asked Jess.

"Benjy Fenwick?" she asked, squinting at him before shaking her head at herself and glancing over her shoulder. "Whatever, it doesn't matter. The point is there's–"

They heard a scraping of something behind Jess, who froze and widened her eyes at Trish. Whatever was out there exhaled loudly and they could hear it taking off.

"I told you!" Jess yelled when all three of them broke into a run.

They could hear it following them now. Jess didn't dare look back again. This night was going down in history.

"Shit, Jess, what'd you get yourself into now?" Trish demanded as they ran. Benjy was a few steps ahead of them being the Quidditch player that he was, and even Trish was ahead of Jess.

"Me?" Jess screeched. "You're the one skinny dipping with _Benjy Fenwick _of all people!"

Trish huffed. "It was for the dare and you know it!"

"I can't even–Slow down, will you?" she screamed.

—x—

His eyes had already lost their luster. She'd only been staring at them for five minutes, maybe ten or fifteen, or–fine it was a half an hour–and they were significantly less blue than they were at the beginning of the night.

And he was still talking about his little brother.

"Joe's a really good kid, you know," he was saying now. "Doesn't get in trouble like I did when I was that age." He chuckled, but Eliza could not remember one instance when he had gotten in trouble. "And have I told you how good he is at baseball?"

"Yeah," Eliza said tonelessly. She sighed and glanced down at her nail beds. "You told me."

"Well, he's really good," Robert said. "His team went to the championship last year and I was so proud–"

_Blah, blah, blah_. That was like the eighth time he'd said he was proud of his little brother, Joe.

"Please, for the love of God, tell me that isn't Eliza!" someone yelled from behind her.

Eliza whirled around, her heart jumping at the chance of getting out of this conversation. Not to get her wrong, Robert was an infinitely nice guy, but _holy shit_ was he boring.

"Who's that?" Eliza called out. _Jess. Mum. Tree with talking abilities. Anyone..._

"It's us!" someone yelled again. Three figures were starting to get closer to where she was sitting and the only thing she could tell was that they were all holding something weird and whoever was calling to her sounded vaguely like Trish...

A disgruntled noise was made. "E, get up! Jesus, you need to start running!" And that sounded like Jess...

"It's Trish and Jess!" the other voice yelled.

Which made total sense.

"And Benjy!" a male voice yelled as well, which didn't make too much sense but Eliza didn't need to dwell on it. She stood and watched the three approach her and full speed. Robert stood next to her.

It was then that she noticed something large behind them.

"Is that..." she started at the same time Robert asked, "Are they..."

It was then that the three passed them and it was then that they started to run.

—x—

"You know...I don't think I thanked you for catching me," Mandy said, directing her and Sirius in smalls circles and zig-zags on his broom.

Sirius grinned. "It was implied, I suppose," he commented.

She did a slow loop-di-loop. "Well, still. Thank you. I would have broken my arm or something. But they can fix those easily now," she mocked.

He looked at her oddly. "Who wants to break their arms?"

"That's what I said!" she exclaimed triumphantly. "But no, no one wants to get me another rope or anything, just because they're too busy being naked and being a ho."

Now he was looking at her _really_ oddly. "What the _hell_ does Jess do in her free time?" he asked her incredulously.

"Well, you know, Slytherins and all that..." Mandy started, but she noticed that Sirius' attention was no longer on her. He was looking down at something on the ground with his brow furrowed and his lips slightly puckered.

"What're you looking at?" she asked, glancing down as well.

It was then that she noticed the five people tearing through the lawn of Hogwarts. One of them seemed to be screeching something while two of the others kept pushing each other.

"Are they...high?" she asked.

Sirius snorted. "You think?"

"Should we..." she hesitated, "go see?"

"No way," he denied. "It's probably Jack Turner and his band of idiots."

"Yeah, you're probably–"

"_Stop pushing me!_" one of the people down below yelled.

They sounded kind of familiar...

"_You!_" another one of them screamed.

"Oh, God," Mandy said to herself.

"What?"

Mandy sighed, rubbing her temples. "Well, it's not Jack Turner, that's for sure."

"How do you know?"

Mandy didn't respond, instead aiming the broom towards the ground. Sirius kept a hold on her from behind and she sighed loudly one more time.

She pulled up next to the five people, keeping pace with them on the broom.

"_What_ are you idiots _doing_?" Mandy demanded, looking over to stare at her friends. Her stupid, stupid friends. She expected this from Jess. She could picture this for Trish. But Eliza was completely out of her element, and who _were_ those other two people?

"Mandy?" Eliza yelled, glancing over at her. "Oh, Mandy! You have no idea how glad I am to see you!"

"What are you–" she went to ask again.

"Lemme on that broom!" Jess screeched, hysterical, attempting to grab the back of the broom with her fingertips. "Lemme on!"

"Chill out!" Mandy yelled. "Stop running and we'll talk!"

"Can't stop running," someone else said, obviously male and obviously completely out of breath. "Can't let it get us."

"It?" Sirius asked. "What's 'it'?"

"It!" Trish yelled. "The thing that's been following us for the past half an hour!"

Mandy sighed again while Sirius mumbled, confused, behind her. She pulled the broom to an abrupt stop and he slammed into her back. She stepped off the broom and Sirius slipped it out from under his legs.

"Guys!" Mandy yelled. "Come back! Nothing's chasing you!"

It was Eliza that stopped first. She must have been at least forty years away, but she slowed to a stop and jogged back to where Mandy was waiting impatiently.

"There's nothing," she whispered. "Guys!" she yelled. "There's nothing!"

The others were persuaded to a stop. Once they were all together, Mandy surveyed them, exasperated.

"Oh, jeez!" Sirius yelled, lifting his hands to cover his eyes. "Dude, put some clothes on!"

Benjy sheepishly covered his hands over his goods, but he had a comeback anyways. "Whatever, man," he said. "Can't help it if I was getting some when this happened.

Trish snorted. "If that was your idea of getting some then you really suck at it."

"What? You were so digging it."

"If you mean wanting to dig my own grave, then yes."

"How could you–"

"Guys!" Eliza yelled. "This isn't exactly the place. That thing is still out there."

"But where?" Jess asked, glancing anxiously.

"I don't know," Eliza stated calmly. "But I haven't heard anything in a while."

"Okay, can I just ask?" Sirius piped up. "Why are you three naked?" He pointed to Jess, Trish, and Benjy. "Were you guys having some weird orgy thing, or–"

"No!" Trish yelped. "No." She was crossing her arms and legs as well as one could while standing to cover herself up. "Benjy and I were skinny dipping."

Sirius gaze shifted over to Jess, who lifted her nose defiantly. "It is none of your business," she replied, not being as prudent as Trish and not bothering to cover up.

"Well, why are you running?" Mandy asked.

"There's something big out there," Jess answered. "It's been following me for almost an hour, and it wont go away."

"What is it?" Sirius asked.

"We don't know," Trish answered.

"I just want to get inside," another male voice said, drawing attention to himself for the first time.

"Robert?" Mandy asked, incredulous.

He whimpered.

"Okay, we–"

Something growled from behind them. It didn't take more than a second for Trish, Jess, Robert, Benjy, and Eliza to take off running. Sirius and Mandy both glanced behind them only to be met with a pair of gleaming yellow eyes.

It didn't take long for them to take off running either.

—x—

It couldn't have been more than ten minutes before Mandy glanced over her shoulder and saw nothing chasing her anymore. They were all now hiding crouched behind a clump of bushes and conversing quietly.

"What do we do now?" Benjy whispered.

"We find a way inside," Eliza answered.

"But how?" Sirius asked. "It's at least a quarter of a mile to the doors."

Jess sighed and pushed her face into the grass while Robert whispered–the only thing he seemed able to do lately.

"Okay, we need a plan," Trish commanded.

"No shit," Jess mumbled. Trish nudged her and glared.

"What if we..." Mandy started, her eyes roaming the vicinity for something of use. Twigs. Robert's almost dead body. The broom. The clothes that were currently not being used.

Wait a minute...

"The broom," Mandy whispered, excited. "We can fly there."

Sirius shook his head with a grimace. "We can't all fit."

"Nose goes!" Jess exclaimed, clamping a finger over her nose at the same time Mandy and Trish turned to each other with their fists out ready for a round of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

"No," Sirius vetoed. "We can't just leave someone here."

"I wouldn't mind," Eliza muttered.

"We just need to get to the doors. Then we're home free," Mandy said.

"I say we run it," Benjy said.

"You really want to run after all this?" Sirius asked. "Aren't you aching?"

"It's better than being eaten alive," was Benjy's response.

"Ahem."

"Who says we'll really get eaten alive?" Trish demanded.

"You haven't been running from it literally all night long," Jess shot at her.

"So you ran like ten minutes longer, big deal."

"_Ahem_."

"It could be right behind us," Benjy whispered.

"Shut _up_, Benjy," Trish demanded.

"Ahem!"

They instantly quieted. As if one, they all turned slowly behind them. The looks were classic: Trish with a bright red face, Jess with a grimace, Benjy with squinty eyes, Robert's whimpers kicking up in volume, Eliza with a small sigh and a strained face, Sirius sucking on his teeth, and Mandy's mouth in a small 'o.'

Because Professor McGonagall was standing behind them. In her bathrobe. Wand pointed. Angry expression.

"Shit," Jess whispered.

"You might want to stand," McGonagall snapped.

All of the teenagers rose to their feet. Robert glanced around nervously, still whimpering.

"_Might_ I _inquire_ what you are _doing_?" McGonagall asked.

"Well," Eliza started, "See, Professor..."

McGonagall shielded her eyes suddenly. "Please tell me you're all clothed!" she shrilled.

"Well...not exactly," Trish hedged.

McGonagall's nostrils flared. "In all my years of teaching, I have _never_..."

Mandy lowered her head for two reasons. One, she was sick of seeing Jess's naked body in her peripheral vision. Two, she didn't think she could watch McGonagall's face get all blotchy like it always did when she was mad. However, when she looked down, she realized that no longer was there someone standing to her right. All that was left was a broom.

"Guys," she said, interrupted her Head of House. "Where's Sirius?"


	6. Punishment

Mandy, Trish, Benjy, Jess, Eliza, and Robert all were squished into McGonagall's office, who was sitting behind her desk with squared shoulders. Although it was hard to take her seriously with the mound of curlers in her hair, the expression on her face instantly sobered the teenagers up.

"What do you have to say for yourselves?" she asked, glaring at them over top of her glasses.

Jess pulled at her collar, having dressed when she, Trish, and Benjy were ordered to seconds before. "Are these clothes more constricting than usual?" she asked.

Eliza elbowed her harshly and smiled sweetly at McGonagall.

"What?" Jess whispered. "It's true."

"We're very sorry, Professor," Eliza said, talking over Jess. "It's just that, well, we went outside and then something started following us, and–"

"We almost got eaten alive!" Benjy called dramatically.

This time Trish elbowed him harshly. "There is something out there, Professor," she told her.

McGonagall sighed, taking her glasses off and rubbing her tired eyes. When she put her glasses back on, she looked up to her students. "I'll have Filch check the grounds. However, that does not change–"

"Professor," Mandy cut in. "Sirius was out there with us. I don't know where he went, but–"

"Ms Thomas, when I found you outside I didn't not see or hear Sirius Black whatsoever."

"But he was–"

"Filch can look for him on the grounds as well. Also, I'll have Mr Potter check the dorms after his patrol," McGonagall interrupted. "How's that?"

Mandy lowered her head. "Fine," she mumbled.

"Now, on to your punishment." McGonagall stood from her desk and laid her hands flat over it. "I'm very disappointed in you. You've acted like children tonight, and it is my duty to punish you all. Come here tomorrow during breakfast and we can go over what you'll be doing for the next two weeks."

They all mumbled their agreements and shuffled their way out of her office. Once they were out, Jess started unbuttoning her top. "God, this thing is like a fucking straight jacket," she muttered.

"Keep your clothes on,"Eliza suggested. "We've all seen more than enough of you tonight."

Jess made a face at her from behind her back but didn't unbutton any more buttons.

"Let's just go to bed," Trish said wearily, and they all went their separate ways.

—x—

The moment Mandy banged her way into the Gryffindor Common Room, she made her determined way to the boys staircase. She clomped upwards to the Seventh Years Boys Dorm and threw the door open.

And of course, there was Sirius lying in his bed.

"What the fuck?" she yelled. Two out of the four Marauders shot up in their beds. "Sirius Black, you little bitch, you totally just left when McGonagall showed up!"

Sirius rubbed at his eyes while Remus watched in confusion. "What are you talking about?" he asked.

"You," she answered, advancing on him. "Leaving. McGonagall. Me. Trouble."

"Full sentences?" he requested.

"You left and the rest of us got in trouble!"

"Oh." He put his head back on his pillow. "Sorry."

Mandy stared at him while he closed his eyes and snuggled deeper into his covers. She glanced over at Remus who was still watching her. "Can you believe this kid?" she asked. "I've got two weeks of detention and he gets off chalk-free just 'cause he's a little pansy."

"Hey," Sirius protested, sitting up in his bed and letting the sheet fall from his bare chest. "I am not a pansy. I heard her behind us, I told you guys to run, and no one followed me."

"Lies!" Mandy screeched. "Lies, lies! I heard no one telling us to run."

"Well, I did," he answered. "You should work on your hearing."

"_You should work on your hearing_," she mimicked childishly. "You suck, man."

"Um," Remus spoke up. "Might I ask what the _fuck_ you guys are talking about?" He stood from his bed and stretched his muscles, knowing that there was no way he was going to get any sleep now. He made his bed like a good little boy and threw himself on top of it.

"You don't want to know, Moony," Sirius answered at the same time Mandy said, "Your best friends got no balls."

"I have balls," he argued. "I _told_ you guys to run."

"What happened to 'we can't leave anyone' blah, blah, blah, huh?"

"I told you to run!"

"I didn't hear you."

"Well, I did."

"Well, I don't believe you."

"Well, you're stupid then."

"Well, _you're_ stupid then!"

Sirius threw himself back onto the bed. "Fine," he sighed, placing his arm over his face. "Whatever."

"I'm leaving," Mandy announced. "But I hope you're happy with your handiwork." With that, she exited dramatically with a slam of the door. Which was slightly downplayed when she fell down the stairs.

—x—

Their clan of troublemakers found themselves all outside of Mcgonagall's door the next morning. Eliza wrung her hands as she looked around at all their faces. Robert, who still looked frightened and was avoiding everyone's eyes, Trish who seemed nervous, Jess and Mandy who just seemed resigned to their punishment, and Benjy who looked completely at ease. She sighed, knowing that it would be her taking charge in this situation.

It always was.

She knocked on McGonagall's door loudly.

"Come in," she called out to them.

Eliza opened the door and noticed someone else in McGonagall's office. Remus Lupin sat in one of the three chairs in front of McGonagall's desk. He turned to look at them all in confusion as they did the same to him, hesitating in the doorway.

"Get in here already," McGonagall commanded, standing from her desk to herd them in. "We're not all here for tea and crumpets," she grumbled. The students filed in and she closed the door after them, squeezing her way through her tight office back to her seat behind her desk.

"Uh, I'm a bit confused, Professor," Remus spoke up.

McGonagall sighed, wondering why she always had to spell things out for people. "You're all here for your two weeks of punishment. I'm aware that Mr Lupin was not involved in the rest of your...excursion, but he as well was punished with two weeks of detention and it is easier to clump you all together."

The students relaxed.

"Now, this detention is a bit unorthodox. There is no room in the regular detention facilities for you because of Ms Evans...over-achieving ability at her job as Head Girl. So, I am assigning you all a project. Your job in these next two weeks is to meet up with a partner of my choosing from the group of you and work on an essay. The essay will be about the pros and cons of the Fertility Potion. The essay will be due after the first week. Then, it is your job to work with your partner to draw up a correct budget for a family of three and make an outline of an appropriate house."

"Um...no offence, Professor," Jess spoke up. "But _why_?"

"Maybe you can present your findings to your parents," she answered. "Then maybe they can evaluate whether having you children was the best choice."

"Burn," Mandy whispered.

"You will also have to make the potion. It takes two weeks to make, so you should probably get started today after classes. Now, the partners...Ms Thomas," McGonagall addressed. "You will be working with Mr Lupin. Ms Morgan and Mr Fenwick. Ms Frankson and Mr Adams. And that leaves Ms Campbell as the odd woman out. I'm afraid you'll be working on this project alone."

Trish nodded, biting her lip.

"You all may leave," McGonagall instructed. "Except you, Ms Campbell. I'd like a word."

Mandy, Jess, and Eliza all shot her a look but left anyways along with the others. Trish took a seat in Remus's vacant chair and looking up at McGonagall. "What is it, Professor?"

"I'm afraid," McGonagall sighed, "that I will have to suspend you from your post as a prefect as well."

Trish sucked in a breath. She loved being a prefect. "But why?"

"If this had just been you out after hours, I would leave it at the detention. However, your being nude added to it. That is why Ms Frankson was not suspended."

"What about Jess and Benjy?"

"They aren't prefects," she answered. "You have a job as a prefect to enforce the rules and be a face for this school. o weeks of your detention is up, your suspension of your prefect duties will be up as well. But I want you to take these weeks and think things over, alright, Ms Campbell?"

Trish nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

—x—

When Trish walked into breakfast, the Hall instantly quieted. Looking around, she saw her friends sitting at the Ravenclaw table and made her confused way over to them.

"What's going on?" she whispered to them as all eyes stayed glued to their quartet.

"What happened last night got out," Jess answered. "You're now a slut and I'm a nudist. Benjy, however..."

The girls looked over to see where Benjy was sitting. He was in the middle of a crowd full of boys, grinning and lapping up the attention. When his eyes met Trish's, he winked at her and a ripple went through the Hall.

"Creep," she muttered, plopping down into the vacant seat next to Jess.

"You're telling me," Eliza answered. "Why didn't you go for someone less disgusting than Benjy _Fenwick_?"

"I didn't know!" Trish defended. "No one said, 'Hey, T, Benjy's a perv.'"

"How could you not know?" Mandy asked. "He's got a reputation as big as China."

"Well, he seemed nice at the time," Trish mumbled.

"At least you've got something down," Eliza commented, referring to the dare. "That's more than any of us have."

Jess grumbled. "Can we _not_ talk about it? Just today, could it not be everything that we're about?"

"I agree!" Mandy said, lifting her glass to clink against Jess's.

"What are you agreeing for?" Eliza asked. "You rode on a broom with Sirius holding you."

As if on cue, Sirius walked into the Great Hall, James on the side of him. Mandy's eyes narrowed as she watched him walk over to the Gryffindor table. He looked up, as if sensing she was looking at him, and noticing her glare, he rolled his eyes and went back to talking to James. "He's a little punk," Mandy muttered. "Can you believe he ditched us?"

"Yeah, what's that all about?" Jess asked. "I thought he got eaten or something."

"No, I checked his dorm last night, and there he was, sleeping like a baby."

"And?" Trish pushed.

"I yelled at him."

"Did he hit you or something?" Eliza asked.

"No, why?"

"Your arms all bruised up."

Mandy blushed, murmuring something into her porridge before taking a large bite of it. At her friends confused looks, she stuff even more into mouth until she was sure she was going to choke.

"You're avoiding something," Jess accused, narrowing her eyes. "Spill."

Mandy attempting to speak but only managed to spray porridge all over the table. Eliza pounded her on the back, resulting in Mandy spitting the rest of it back out into her bowl.

"Gross," Trish commented, watching the porridge-and-saliva combination wiggle in the bowl.

"Damn, M," Jess said. "What's in your spit, radioactive shit or something?"

Mandy wiped her mouth and coughed a bit. "Oops."

"So, are you gonna answer about the bruises or what?" Eliza asked.

Mandy sighed. "I fell down the stairs, la-di-do, now you know."

Jess snorted. "What a klutz."

"Listen here, nudey–"

"Hey!"

Eliza shook her head as her friends continued to bicker before turning to Trish. "What'd McGonagall want, anyways?"

"She suspended me as a prefect," Trish answered.

"What?" Eliza asked. "Why?"

"My nudity." Trish cracked a small grin. "It's cool. Let's just get to class."

—x—

Jess felt incredibly tense in Potions. It seemed that her stunt had gotten out to the public and now the only thing people would talk to her about was being naked. Her partner was even more scared of her than usual. And it seemed as though she'd caused a rift between Paul and his dear Alice.

Not that that was a bad thing.

She sidled up to him in the ingredient room. "Hi," she said, pretending to look for something of her own.

He looked up from the two bottles that he was reading, but once he noticed it was her, he only glanced back down.

"What, no hello back?" she asked.

He continued reading.

"Oh, I get it," she said. "There's trouble in paradise and you're blaming little old moi."

He sighed loudly.

"Come on," she told him, laughing. "It's not my fault."

He finally tore his eyes away from the bottles. He looked her straight in the eye. "Stay away from me," he said. He walked away.

She blinked after him. That was the second time in a twenty-four hour period that he had left her standing there.

It seemed, however, that she wasn't alone for long. As she stood there, Alice stomped her way over and stood directly in front of her. Jess lowered her eyes to the shorter girl. "Can I help you?" she asked coolly.

"Stay away from him," Alice said vehemently.

"I don't know what you're–"

"Cut the crap," Alice plowed on. 'I don't know what little game you're trying to play with Paul, and frankly, I don't care what it entails, but what I do know is that you need to stay the hell away from my boyfriend."

"Listen here–"

"No, _you _listen here. I know that you're used to being some fucking Slytherin princess and getting whatever the hell you want, but you're _not_ getting Paul, and if you try again, trust me, I will have no problem beating your skanky little ass into the ground."

As quickly as she came, Alice left. She grabbed her bag sitting next to her chair and slammed her way out of the classroom. The classes' eyes shifted between the door and Jess, obviously having heard the entire argument. Then, slowly, everyone looked over at Paul. He gathered his stuff up and left the class as well, calling Alice's name once he was in the hall.

Everyone looked back at Jess.

"Now, I say," Slughorn said, waddling over to the door. "What is going on here?"

Jess lowered her eyes. She put away whatever she was holding in her hand and brushed her way out of the classroom as well.

Screw this.

—x—

Eliza was having a bit of trouble getting Robert to speak to her. Even though they had practically all the same classes together, he made an art out of getting in and out of the classes faster than the speed of light and avoiding her in the halls at all costs.

She sighed angrily as she stomped into the Great Hall for dinner. He was sitting in a seat at the Ravenclaw table, shoveling food into his mouth. Eliza noted that her friends were sitting over at the Slytherin table, but she walked over to where Robert was sitting.

When he saw her standing there, he stood up from his seat, nearly knocking his chair over, and grabbed his bag. He walked swiftly out of the Great Hall, but Eliza was hot on his heels.

"Robert!" she called after her. He didn't stop. "Rob, come on! You're going to _have_ to talk to me."

He didn't answer but he stopped, not turning to face her.

"God, it's not my _fault_ that we got detention. But we're partners and we're going to have to work on the project together."

He nodded his head.

"Are you going to say anything?" she asked.

All he did was walk away.

—x—

Mandy hesitated in her seat in the Common Room. She knew that she should go upstairs and knock on the Seventh Years boys dorm door. She knew that she needed to talk to Remus and get started on the project, but she was still hesitating. Every time her hands gripped the arms of the chair to lift herself up, they instantly flew back to her lap.

She didn't want to see Sirius. He was such a little punk for leaving them all there. He was supposed to have some big, bad reputation about being a troublemaker and breaking the rules, but what did he do when McGonagall came? He ran.

"What a guy," she scoffed to herself.

But that, at the current time, didn't matter. She wanted to finish the detention. She wanted to finish the essay early and she wanted to work on the potion and she wanted everything to go back to how things were when she _wasn't_ focused on that stupid dare.

The portrait opened and closed but she didn't move. Her eyes stayed glued to the stairs to the boys dorms.

"Hey," a voice said behind her. She turned her head slowly to see Remus holding books in his hands and nodding his head to the boys dorm. "You want to go work on this project? We could do it down here, but...it's kind of noisy."

Mandy rose to her feet with a sigh. "I guess," she grumbled. He grinned at her. "Is your stinky little roommate going to be there?"

He grinned wider. "Who?"

"_Sirius_," she mocked in a nasty voice.

He laughed openly now. "Probably."

She grumbled but followed him up the stairs anyways. He opened the door to the dorm and all of his fellow Marauders were inside.

"Ooh, Moony's bringing a girl back to the dorms," James joked, winking at Mandy.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Yes, Mandy, would you like to have sex in front of all of them?" he asked.

Sirius snorted, sitting up from his spot on his bed. "I wouldn't mind watching," he said, smirking.

Mandy huffed. Sometimes she really hated boys.


	7. Trapped

Trish banged her way into her dormitory. All of her roommates were present, and their eyes drifted to her instantly.

"Hi," she mumbled in greeting, not looking any of them in the eyes. The others mumbled their greetings in return.

Trish and the rest of the Hufflepuff girl's never really got along. They had the type of relationship where they lived together and they knew to stay out of each other's ways. The other girls were all nice and tightly packed in their group of friends and they did things like giving each others manicures and brushing their hair. Her friends...well, if last night was any indication, her friends were crazy.

She put her stuff down on her bad and pulled off her shoes. The other girls were uncharacteristically quiet, but she tried to ignore it. It seemed like everyone was quiet around her lately, save for Jess, Eliza, and Mandy.

"So...Benjy Fenwick, huh?" one of the girls asked

"Helen!" Kara scolded.

"What?" Helen asked. "I'm curious."

Trish shrugged. "We're not together or anything."

Helen surveyed her. "Do you want to be?"

One of the other girls, Tammy, elbowed her, mumbling something in her ear to which Helen hushed.

Trish scoffed. "Hardly. He's a jerk." She watched as the other girls seemed to relax. Helen screwed the top on the nail polish she had been using prior and waddled her way over to Trish, trying to avoid the carpet for her wet toenails.

"That's good," Helen said. "We thought that you were...and then..."

Trish looked at her oddly. "What?"

"I had a thing with Benjy once." She crossed her arms over her chest tightly. "It didn't end well. Hell, it didn't begin well."

Trish cracked a small smile. "He's a bit of a slimy git, isn't he?"

The other girls laughed loudly. Kara went over to Helen and placed a hand on her shoulder, who smiled at Trish widely. "Just a bit," she teased. "Hey, want to let me do your nails?"

—x—

Eliza tapped her fingers against her thigh. Her bag lay next to her unopened but stacked full with books. Her shoes were loose on her feet from the day of walking. Her hair was up in a messy ponytail but pieces of her blonde hair kept creeping into her eyes.

She'd been waiting for a while.

She didn't know where he was. She didn't know why he wasn't back when it was almost nine o'clock at night and there was no where for him to go.

She sighed loudly. It must have been the tenth sigh in the last twenty minutes.

Where the hell was he?

Just when she was getting a little peeved–you know, just a little–she heard stomping on the stairs. She knew that he was the only one in the world who walked up stairs as if he was walking to his death, so she quickly stood and flattened down her skirt.

He turned the corner and spotted her. He shifted his book bag on his shoulder. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Oh, you can talk now?" she asked.

He didn't answer her question, instead motioning to the door behind her. "I can't get in with you in the way."

"Good," she said. "Where have you been? I've been waiting for an hour to start on our project."

"I was in the library," he answered as if it was obvious. "Working on the project."

She drew back, her inner-Ravenclaw stung. "You worked on it without me?" she asked slowly.

"Well, most of the books on it were checked out, but I got some work done."

She lifted her bag and opened it, showing him the three large books on potions that were inside. "I imagine everyone else has the others," she said.

He shifted. "Right. Well, I'm tired. Could you move?"

"Not until you talk to me. Why are you shunning me all of the sudden?" she asked. "What happened to toasting to our friendship and me getting over your stupidity?"

He sighed, dropping his bag to the ground with a thunk. "Look, I know it's not your fault. Okay? I know. But I don't get in trouble. Ever."

"So?" she asked. "There's a first time for everything."

He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. I just want to finish this and then forget about it."

Eliza grabbed her bag and slipped it on her shoulder. "Fine," she murmured. She moved past him to the stairs and he walked over to his door. Right when he was about to open it, he turned back to her.

"Hey, Eliza?" he asked.

She turned, her foot hovering on the first step. "Yes?"

"What do you think that thing was?" he asked quietly.

Eliza paused, taking in his frightened appearance. She looked down at her shoes before looking back up at him. "I don't know," she whispered. He nodded and opened his door. She slipped around the corner and down the stairs.

—x—

Jess sighed, looking out through the window. She sat on the ledge in a deserted hall, surveying the almost-full moon. It would probably be full in three days at the most, but she liked it best right now. Everyone always associated the moon as a crescent or a big circle. It was better when it was in between.

She looked down at her hands, going over the days events in her head. She couldn't believe that she had let Alice yell at her in front of everyone. The girl was practically a foot shorter than her and probably didn't stand a chance against a fight with Jess–but it was the fact that she was willing to try that got Jess. Here she was, willing to get her ass kicked just because she was in love with a boy. Jess couldn't imagine that kind of devotion.

Or that kind of desperation.

What would make someone willing to throw away their pride and dignity and lay it all out on the table like that? Who in their right mind would be willing to do that?

_Alice, apparently,_ her mind answered her.

Even still. Sure, if someone challenged her, Jess would have no quarrel with taking a girl down. But she sure as hell wouldn't do it over a _boy_, one like _Paul_, no less. What was his appeal, anyways?

_His ability to not be affected by your womanly whiles_.

She tapped her knuckles against the stone under her. _Shut up, brain._

"You know," someone said from behind her. "I could get you in trouble for this."

Jess turned her head slowly to see one of the prefects behind her. "Are you going to?" she asked.

The boy shrugged. "That depends." He walked over and took a seat on the ledge next to her. "You're Jess, right?" he asked.

Jess sighed, flashing him a fake grin. "You got that right," she answered.

"I'm Frank," he told her.

"Good for you," she mumbled, picking at her nails.

"I'm friends with Alice and Paul."

Her eyes shot up to his. "Even better for you."

"Mind if I ask why the hell you're pursuing him?" he asked.

"You're blunt," she noted.

He shrugged. "No point in beating around the bush."

Jess took in his appearance. He was in no way handsome. His eyes were a bit dopey and there were bags underneath them and he had some big honkin' teeth, but she could see the muscles coiled around his arms. He was obviously a Quidditch player–she was pretty sure she'd noticed him playing as one of the Gryffindor beaters.

She dropped her feet to the floor and glanced over at him. "I don't know why I'm pursuing him," she said. "But I know why you're asking."

He looked like he was resisting a smile. "And why is that?"

"You like Alice," she said simply.

—x—

"Alright," Mandy said while jotting down a sentence. She ended it with a flourish and looked up at Remus. "Rough draft done. Do you have your potion kit with you? We should start the potion."

Remus dug around under his bed and withdrew the kit. He wiped something slimy off of it and grinned sheepishly up at her. "Lots of things under the bed," he commented.

She shook her head. "I don't even want to know." She took the kit from his hands.

"It's very interesting," a bored voice said from behind her, "watching you two work."

Mandy lifted her nose into the air. "Well, this is what you _should_ have been doing, so I'm glad you find it interesting."

"It's not interesting," James put in. "At all." He shook his head. "Sirius is just mental."

"Prongs, I don't think you really want to go there," Remus commented.

James rolled over onto his back on his bed. "I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about."

"I'll give you a hint," Remus said. "Her name starts with an L and ends in a Y."

"There also happens to be an I and an L somewhere in between those two," Sirius commented. Remus nodded.

"You guys are just jealous because I've found my soul mate," James argued, putting his nose in the air.

"No offence, James," Mandy put in. "But she kind of hates you. I live with her. I know."

"Yeah, Prongs," Sirius put in. "Listen to little Mandy here."

Mandy stiffened. "I," she said, "am not little."

"No, but something on you is," he answered, his eyes looking at a part of her anatomy quite obviously.

Mandy made an indignant squeak. "I'll have you know that I am a 36C, you little–" she started yelling.

"Okay," Remus said overtop of her. "And with that we end our program of _Things I Never Needed To Know In My Life Ever_. Next week's episode: thongs or g-strings!"

Mandy smacked his arm. "Shut up," she grumbled.

"Yeah, Remus, it's not her fault that she has to wear a push-up, it's just the universe's way of–"

"Sirius Black, I wouldn't be talking if I were you," she warned. "Not with the size of your dong being what it is."

He reddened. "You don't even know–"

"Uh, trust me, yes I do," she answered. "I live with Maria Moore. _I know_."

Sirius didn't have an answer to that and Mandy sent him a smug smirk. James sat on his bed, grinning, while Remus cleared his throat loudly. "Well," he said. "I'm hungry. I'm going to go get some food. James, think you can watch these two for a little?"

"Sure thing, Moony," James answered, saluting him. Remus rose from his spot on the floor and left the dorm. Silence enveloped the dorm and Mandy looked around uncomfortably.

_Great,_ she thought.

—x—

Trish looked down at the magazine that was spread across her knees. She was currently reading an article titled _Ten Ways To Make Him Love You_ but every idea made her cringe at the thought of it. Maybe it was just because she was having horrible luck in the guy department but _man_ did she hate condescending articles.

She glanced over at Helen, who was doing her toenails with the utmost concentration. The other girls were laying on the floor next to them, reading magazines and occasionally reading on out loud to everyone else.

"Hey, Helen?" Trish asked.

Helen didn't even look up from Trish's nails. "Hm?" she asked.

"When did you have that thing with Benjy?"

Helen's movements stopped. She sighed, putting the cap on the nail polish and screwing it on. She placed it on the table next to Trish's bed and laid back against the pillows. "At the end of last year. Maybe...the last few weeks? It didn't last after the last day of school."

Trish nodded.

"I'm not how you think I am, you know," Helen said. Trish glanced up at her, alarmed. "I know you think I'm a girl with nothing better on her mind than gossip and makeup and hair products."

"I never–"

"It's okay," she interrupted. "I know. Everyone thinks that about it. And it's cool, I don't mind. But...I'm not, you know? There's more to me than that."

Trish nodded. "I believe you," she whispered.

Helen nodded, looking at her, before shaking her head with a grin. "Whew! These fumes are getting to my head. Read me something from that magazine of yours, Gretchen."

Gretchen started reading aloud an article from the magazine. Trish watched as Helen continued painting her nails.

—x—

His small grin didn't move, but his eyes narrowed a bit. "What makes you so certain?" he asked.

Jess shrugged. "I read people pretty well," she told him. It was true. It was obvious, the way he held himself. How he went out of his way to talk to her, to tell her he was friends with them. And then there were the bags under his eyes–he practically screamed _I'm in love with Alice!_

He stood from his spot, stretching. "Well, that's a great story. So, how many points should I take off? Hmm, how about twe–"

"I'm not going to tell anyone," she told him.

He stopped. "What?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Frank, I don't care if you love Alice. I don't care if you love _Paul_. Okay, there, I might care a little bit–"

"Go on," he interrupted.

She shook herself from her tangent. "Right. The point is that you want Alice, I want Paul. They're together. We're alone. The way I see it there are many possible ways to proceed from here, but one sounds pretty good to me..."

He stared at her. "I'm not following," he said.

Jess huffed. "You're so clueless. You didn't just come up to me for nothing, you know."

"Actually, it's my duty as a prefect to–"

"Blah, blah, I know, I'm friends with prefects. But is that why you came up to me? You could have just taken points away," she pointed out.

Frank hesitated. "So, what are you saying?" he asked.

Jess grinned slowly. "I'm saying you and I–" she looped her arm through his and smiled even wider, "are in perfect company."

—x—

Eliza walked her way into the Common Room, bag bulging at her side. She couldn't work on the project now, considering she didn't know what Robert had already done, and being the Ravenclaw that she was, she'd already finished her homework.

She plopped down into one of the chairs with a sigh. Nothing to do, no one to talk to...

IT was only a minute or two before she felt the sofa move to the right of her. She turned her head and was met with the sight of the Bible Girl, clutching her Bible to her chest and staring up at Eliza oddly.

"Er, hello," Eliza said, giving an awkward wave.

The girl's breathing sped up. "Hi," she whispered.

"Are you...asthmatic?"

"Yes," the girl gasped. "But this is normal."

Eliza nodded slowly. She looked away and put her bag on the ground just for something to do with her hands. When she looked up, the girl was still sitting there. "Can I help you with something?" she asked, very fast. The girl was breathing even harder now but Eliza stared her in the eye.

"I live in your dorm," she blurted out. "You just don't notice."

Eliza cocked her head to the side. "Really?" she asked, curious. At the girl's jerking nod, she put her head straight. "Huh," she said.

"I wanted you to have this," she said, putting her Bible into Eliza's lap. "You need it more than I do."

Was it just Eliza or did that seem like a subtle jibe at her holiness? She looked up, gripping the Bible tightly in her hands and ready to give it back, but the girl was already gone. Not even a moment later, Robert flopped himself down into her vacant seat.

He turned to look at her, opening his mouth to say something before his eyes landed on the Bible. "You're religious?" he asked.

"No," she mumbled, stuffing the Bible into her bag to give back to the girl later. "It's a long story. What do you want?"

"I wanted to apologize," he said, taking her by surprise.

"What?" she asked.

He nodded. "It wasn't right of me to blame you. It wasn't your fault that it happened and I shouldn't have blamed you."

Eliza eyed him. "You were...really scared, weren't you?" she asked.

Robert sucked in a breath, his face telling all. He let out the breath and nodded. "Yes," he answered.

She put her hand over his that was resting on his knee. His eyes flitted down to it before looking back up at hers. "I'm sorry," she found herself whispering.

Her gave her a small smile, turning his hand over to squeeze his fingers around hers. He drew his back a second later and pulled his bag onto his lap. "Ready to work?" he asked with a smile.

"You know it," she answered.

—x—

"So..." she said. "Where's Peter?"

Sirius was sulking on his bed and refusing to speak, so James shrugged. "I think he's playing Chess in the Common Room."

"That's...cool," Mandy said.

Silence again.

She sighed loudly, fiddling with Remus's potions kit.

The door flew open. It wasn't Remus in the doorway, however. Instead it was Peter, his face flushed and looking a bit out of breath. "Prongs," he said. "Evans is downstairs and she says she has some things to discuss with you."

James's face instantly brightened. "Later, kiddies," he said to Sirius and Mandy, bounding down the stairs with Peter on his heels. The door shut after them but the words still floated up to them.

"Why, Lily," James said. "What is it that I can do for you?"

"Where's my underwear, Potter?" she demanded.

James was quiet for a moment. "No idea what you're talking about, Lil–"

"I'm not playing games, Potter, _where_ is my _underwear_?"

"Haha, did you hear how that rhymed?" James asked, obviously nervous. "Ha...ha."

"Funny," Lily answered sarcastically. "But I still want my underwear."

"I don't have it, I swear."

"I _will_ report you, Potter, don't _test_ me."

"What do you think?" Mandy asked quietly, a bit uneasy. "Will she punch him or slap him this time?"

Sirius looked over at her slowly, giving her a long look.

"Maybe a kick?" she asked weakly.

He was still looking at her like that. "Right..." she whispered. She looked around for something to do, not wanting to start the potion without Remus and not knowing where his cauldron was anyways. "Well, I think I'll just go use the loo."

She got to the door before he said anything. "You're not going to want to go in there," he said lifelessly.

"Why not?" she asked, turning the knob. She pushed their heavy door open–their door was a lot heavier than her own. Once it was open, she took a step in and instantly regretted it. A powerful smell of something horrible–a mix between bad eggs and her dad's gym socks–hit her and coughed harshly. "What is _that_?" she choked out.

"I told you," a voice said from behind her. She swirled around and saw Sirius standing there in the doorway, holding the door.

"What is it?" she asked.

"A potion," he answered. "You don't want to know. I'll get it out of here so you can use the facilities." He brushed past her and went towards the cauldron. He put his hands on either side and started to heave when there was a _slam._

He closed his eyes and squished up his face. "Please tell me you held the door open," he said.

Mandy looked behind her to the door. "No."

He sighed loudly. "Try opening it."

She grasped the doorknob. She tried to turn it. It didn't work. She pulled it, twisted it, tugged it, everything she could think of, but the door didn't open and the knob didn't move. She turned slowly to face Sirius, who was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. "What'd you do?" she demanded.

"What did I do?" he asked. "You closed the door."

"You didn't _tell_ me I had to keep it open," Mandy accused.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "There is an illegal potion in the bathroom. The door is heavier than usual. Obviously it would automatically lock."

She huffed, glaring. "Just unlock it, will you?"

He shrugged. "Can't."

Her glare intensified. "What do you _mean_ you _can't_?" She stepped away from the door, closer to the potion and where Sirius was leaning casually. The smell got stronger but she ignored it.

"Only one of the Marauders can open the door and I don't have mine." He shrugged again. "We'll just have to wait for one of the boys."

Mandy fished her wand out of her pocket and threw it at him. "Open it," she demanded.

He threw it back. "It only works with one of our wands. Don't underestimate us, Mandy."

"Well, at least get rid of the stench," she told him, throwing the wand back.

It fell back into her hands seconds later. "Why can't you?"

She huffed, more irritated than before, before preforming the spell. The rank smell was virtually gone, though if she stepped too close to the cauldron, a bit of the smell came back. "What is that, anyways?"

He shook his head, lowering himself to the ground. Mandy followed his example. "You really don't want to know," he said.

She sat down on the ground, too. "I think I have a right to know," she snapped.

"Not really," he mumbled, putting his head down in his arms.


	8. Revelations

Sometimes, Jess wished that she spent her time with more Slytherins. Really, all these Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaw's and Gryffindor's were just too..._nice_. No one wanted to get revenge with her. No one wanted to plot with her. No one wanted to do anything with her because supposedly it was all too _mean_.

Take Frank for example. She had given him the chance of a lifetime: he could get the girl he'd been in love with for however long, and she would get Paul. It was a wonderful plan. It was fool-proof. It was–

"I don't know," Frank said.

–as always, too mean.

Jess pulled her entire body away from him. "What do you mean, you don't _know_?" she asked, incredulous. "I'm giving you the chance of a lifetime! I'm _giving_ you Alice."

"But..." He sighed, rubbing a hand over his face and looking her in the eyes. "I don't want her to want me like that."

Jess rolled her eyes. "Let me guess. You want her to _want_ to want you."

Frank nodded.

"Get over it, buddy!" she yelled. He jerked back. She held her arms out to emphasize her point. "You take what you can get. You want Alice. You can get Alice."

"But how do you know?" he asked. "Would it actually work?"

She sighed. It was always so hard explaining things to newbies. "It will work. I have done this time and time again. It's worked in the past, it will work now, and it will forever, no matter the circumstances, always work."

Frank weighed his options. He didn't want to get together with Alice unless she _wanted_ to get together with him. But...at the same time...this was what he'd always wanted. Could he really pass that opportunity up? "What if she found out?" he asked.

"She's not going to find out," Jess snapped. Frank shuffled his feet and she sighed, her face softening. "She won't find out," she repeated. "I promise. Now...are you in, or are you out?"

He looked at her. "I'm in," he said firmly.

—x—

"Do you think this will actually make what it's supposed to make?" Robert asked, dropping a few clover leaves into the brewing potion. Eliza watched as he did so, stirring the potion counter-clock wise.

"Three, four, five," she said. "Hopefully. We're not horrible at this, are we? Eight, nine, ten..."

"I don't know." He squinted down at the potion. "I think I see one of your hairs."

Eliza nudged her shoulder against his. "Shut up, you baboon. Thirteen."

"I'm serious!" he cried. "It's blonde and long and girly."

"Cute," Eliza replied sarcastically. "Twenty. There." She took the spoon out and placed it across the top of the cauldron. "Now what?"

Robert ran his finger down the directions. "Now..." he said. "We leave it for twenty-four hours."

"That's it?"

"For now."

Eliza shuffled awkwardly, zipping up her case with her potion ingredients. "That was pretty easy," she commented, throwing her case into her bag.

Robert shut the books spread across his bed. "Yeah, it was." He turned to her and grinned. "As long as it doesn't blow up in the middle of the night."

"Well, if it does, it's on you," Eliza responded, throwing her bag on her shoulder and shrugging nonchalantly.

Robert smiled, shaking his head. "Guess it is. So, we'll, uh...meet here tomorrow?" he asked.

Eliza nodded. "Same time, same place."

"Great," he replied.

They stood on their opposite sides of the room awkwardly, Robert looking down at his shoes while Eliza looked out the window. "Right," she said eventually, "I guess I'll get going."

"Right," he repeated. "Guess so."

She shuffled her way over to him quickly, wrapping her arms around him in a quick hug. Before he could respond, she pulled away, planting a kiss on his cheek, and fled the room.

"Bye," he said to the empty room, sitting himself down on the bed slowly.

—x—

Trish slipped herself underneath her covers. The only light that was left on in the dorm was the light from the bathroom shining out at them from underneath the door. Gretchen and Kara were having a whispered conversation from their beds as the rest of the girls settled in for bed. It wasn't long before Gretchen and Kara quieted down as well, and the room was silent save for the girls shuffling in their beds.

Trish could not sleep. She had been the one to suggest they go to bed, but she wasn't tired. The night kept whirling its way around in her head.

These girls were nice girls. Throughout her entire Hogwarts career, she'd spent her time with Jess, Eliza, and Mandy because she'd been under the impression that these girls were all washed up beauty pageant winners. The thing was, they were far from it. She felt horrible for assuming they were.

The room was now completely quiet. There was no mumbling or snoring or breathing deeply.

"Are you awake?" a voice whispered out of the darkness.

Trish squinted. "Helen?" she whispered back.

There was some shuffling before she felt something fall onto her bed. If she strained her eyes, it made the shape of a human. "Yeah, it's me," it answered quietly. "I wanted to talk to you."

"About what?" Trish asked. "It's late."

"Well, you haven't fallen asleep yet," Helen accused. "You were the one who said you were tired."

Trish sat up fully, squirming in the discomfort of Helen's accusation. "So?"

"I just want to talk to you," Helen insisted.

"Okay, shoot."

Helen hesitated. Trish watched as a hand reached up to twirl her hair around her finger. "You know what I said about Benjy?" she asked.

"Yes."

"You're really not thinking of doing anything with him, are you?"

Trish shook her head. "Helen, I told you no before."

Helen shifted. "I know, but I wanted to make sure that you weren't just saying that in front of the rest of the girls."

"Well, I wasn't," Trish answered. "Nothing's going to happen."

"Okay," Helen breathed out. "Good."

"Why?" Trish asked. She squinted at Helen. "Did...did something happen with you and Benjy?"

—x—

The two sat in a terse silence. Mandy knew that his jibe about her cup-size wounded her ego, and she was sure that her comment had the same effect on him. But this silence was killing her. They'd had to have been sitting on this grimy floor–did they ever _clean_?–for at least twenty minutes.

"Why haven't they come back yet?" she asked. Her voice seemed loud after the silence.

"Remus eats like a horse," he mumbled, not bothering to pick his head up from his arms. "And Pete and James can get carried away."

"Isn't the phrase, could eat a horse, not eats like a horse?"

He didn't answer.

They sat in silence for a few more minutes before she finally cracked.

"Alright," she said, rubbing her hands together with nerves. "Alright, if we never get out of here, I've got a confession to make."

Sirius slowly lifted his head from his arms. "What?" he asked tonelessly.

"I, um," she started slowly. "Well..."

"Out with it," he pushed.

She shot him a look. "Fine. Only the girls know this about me, so you better consider yourself lucky because they only know because we grew up together and this has never left my mouth before, but...my middle name is Joanna."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "Joanna?" he asked. "_That's_ your confession?"

"And my Mum calls me MJ," she continued in a rush. "like in Spiderman."

Now he looked amused. He let out a bark of a laugh. "MJ," he tried out. He grinned at her. "Classic."

"It's not funny," Mandy protested. "It's a family name."

Sirius shrugged. "Hey, who am I to judge?"

She hesitated before asking, "What's yours?"

"Orion."

"Ugh!" she cried out. "That's not even embarrassing!"

—x—

Jess tiptoed her way into her dorm. It was a bit late and all her Slytherin roommates were asleep. Jess attempted to crawl under her covers and get some shut eye herself, but she had far too much energy to be able to sit still.

Frank had yes. After much persuading, he had finally given in. And now all she had to do was put the plan into motion. It wouldn't be too hard, either: a few rumors here, a lie there, and voila. Instant break-up. Instant Paul.

It was then she fell asleep with a smile on her face.

—x—

Trish watched as Helen fidgeted. In the shallow lighting, all she could tell was that Helen looked a bit uncomfortable. But just as Trish opened her mouth to assure Helen she didn't need to tell her, Helen started talking.

"That's a bit of an understatement," Helen mumbled. At Trish's confused look, Helen elaborated. "We...God, how do you phrase this? Before school ended last year, Benjy and I...had sex." It seemed that the words were being forced out of her lips. "I went home over the summer, and we were over, and..."

Trish laid a hand on Helen's leg in comfort. Her stomach was in knots about what she was sure was about to leave Helen's lips.

"I had to have an abortion," Helen whispered. Her voice was thick with emotion while Trish sucked in a breath. "My parents..." A sob shook through her but she plowed on in her story. "They were really disappointed in me. They thought I was going to wait until marriage. And they knew I couldn't have it, couldn't have my baby." Helen lifted a hand to cover her mouth. "I just wish that I...I could've..."

She couldn't get words out anymore. Trish pushed herself up to envelope Helen in a hug while she cried quietly, trying not to wake the rest of their dorm.

—x—

"Tell me something embarrassing," Mandy demanded.

Sirius put his pointer and middle finger to his lips in thought. "Uhhh..." His eyes locked with hers. "Once, when I was drunk, I felt up Peter."

Mandy almost choked but instead blurted out, "My first kiss was with Poopy Teddy Porter."

"I sucked my thumb until I was thirteen."

"My brother caught me practicing kissing on my knee."

"James's mum thinks I'm gay."

Mandy erupted in laughter. "I'm sorry," she gasped. "I thought I could handle it after the Peter thing but–" She clutched her side as her merriment continued.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, _MJ_," he grumbled with a small smile.

"Why does she think you're _gay_?" Mandy asked, ignoring the jibe at her name.

"Well, I've been living there since Fifth Year." She nodded–it was common knowledge. "And I haven't brought a girl back to meet her." He shrugged. "Add that to the fact that I'm a 'pretty boy'–her words, not mine, and you get–"

"Gay," Mandy finished.

Sirius nodded.

"Well what about her own son? He obviously hasn't either, has he?"

He shook his head. "He never shuts up about Lily. Originally, they thought it was some kind of anagram, but then they met her at the Platform once. They still have doubts about her femininity, though."

Mandy laughed. "His parents are crazy."

"Yeah, well, where do you think James got it from?"

"And you?" she teased.

He grinned. "Association."

She laughed, shaking her head.

"What about you?" he asked, scooting over so that he could sit cross-legged across from her. "Does your mother think you're a lesbian?"

"No," she answered with a smile. "Though she does think I need to get laid."

Sirius practically choked on his air. "_What?_" he gasped.

"I'm serious," she declared, grinning. "For the same reason James's mum thinks you're gay. No boys coming to knock the door down. And then she says I hang out with girls too much. I need to hang out with a _real_ man and see what he can do."

Sirius was cackling by this time, rolling onto his back in laughter. Mandy joined in.

"I swear she'd set me up with my own brother if she could," she added.

"Well, does she know?" he asked, looking up at her from his sprawled spot on the grimy floor.

"Know what?"

"That you're not a virgin."

"Wh–_what?_"


End file.
